Chambers trained as a commercial artist and started his career designing jewelry and carpets.[2] Following service as a U.S. Army dental technician during World War II, Chambers found employment repairing faces[3] and making prosthetic limbs for wounded veterans at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Hines, Illinois.[4] He also trained under Ben Nye, then head of make-up at 20th Century Fox.[5]
In 1953, Chambers joined the NBC television network as a make-up artist for live shows. After working on his first film Around the World in Eighty Days in 1956, he then joined Universal Pictures. He attracted attention for his work on the film The List of Adrian Messenger, in which the audience had to guess which celebrities were concealed under Chambers' makeup; the actors' identities were not revealed until the end of the film. Chambers also worked on The Munsters and The Outer Limits TV series.
Movie poster of fake sci-fi film Argo, created as part of the cover story for Canadian Caper
In the late 1970s, Chambers worked as a contractor for the CIA, creating "disguise kits" for CIA personnel stationed in other countries.[10][11] Some of his work can be seen at the International Spy MuseuminWashington D.C.
In 1980, Chambers was enlisted by CIA officer Tony Mendez to work on the Canadian Caper—the rescue of six American embassy personnel who hid at the residence of the Canadian ambassador during the Iran hostage crisis. Chambers set up a fake movie and production company as a cover story of a film crew planning to shoot a science fiction film, titled Argo, in Iran.[12] To make the cover believable, Chambers used actor Michael Douglas's former office during the filming of The China Syndrome (1979) at
Sunset Gower Studios. Chambers and Mendez printed fake business cards, held a film press party at a nightclub in Los Angeles, and took out advertisements in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter magazines. Fellow make-up artist Robert Sidell and his wife Andi assisted in the hoax; Andi posed as the receptionist of their fake production company.[13]
Chambers retired in 1982[15] and lived in a retirement community, the Motion Picture Country Home, in Woodland Hills, California. In 1998, a documentary, A Tribute to John Chambers (1998), directed by Scott Essman, was released.[16] That same year, he was named 94th in the list of "100 most influential people in the history of the movies".[17] Chambers was also given a "star" on the Hollywood Walk of Fameat7006 Hollywood Boulevard, one of few make-up artists to have one.
Chambers died on August 25, 2001, in a California hospital, at age 78. He was survived by his wife Joan.[2]
^Laurier, Joanne (December 12, 2001). "US cable channel whitewashes the CIA". International Committee of the Fourth International. Retrieved January 3, 2012.
^ abSusan King (October 23, 2012). "'Argo': John Chambers' friends recall the renowned makeup man". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 6, 2013. "Sidell said he and his wife, Andi, who was the fake production company's receptionist, and Chambers never really talked about those events.." (page 1)