Michael Myers’ famous mask has an unexpected connection to Star Trek. The original prop began as a Captain Kirk costume mask!
Michael is one of the most iconic and recognizable horror icons out there and a significant part of that is thanks to his eerie pale mask first used in the 1978 Halloween movie.
How did Captain Kirk become Michael Myers?
There has been rumors for a long time that the mask he used was based on William Shatner‘s face from his time playing James T. Kirk in the Star Trek franchise, beginning with the 1966 original series. More specifically, it was rumored the mask was a “Captain Kirk death mask,” per the official Star Trek website.
This was confirmed by Rick Sternbach, an illustrator and designer on several key Star Trek properties. He revealed through a Facebook post that he had been hired as an illustrator on Halloween 2 in 1981 and noticed they had a mask leftover from the original Halloween in the supply cabit without an idea of where to get more.
He continued, “It appeared that we’d need to go check out some of the toys stores and such, but I noticed that there was some wording molded into the neck area. There was a model number, and ‘Don Post Studios.’ I made a call, read off the model number, and the word came back ‘It’s our Captain Kirk mask.’ I asked if we could buy a number of them, and was told ‘We’ll give you a box, just give us credit.’ With that, I turned the official dealings over to the higher-ups. Brush with greatness.”
What has William Shatner said about it?
Back in 2021, William did an interview with the YouTube channel Jake’s Takes (via The Hollywood Reporter), where he revealed that he first thought the whole mask thing was a joke after seeing it in a picture, noting that he hadn’t seen John Carpenter‘s classic 1978 film.
“I recognized it as the death mask they had made for me,” William explained. “They made a mask of my face on Star Trek out of clay so I would not have to be available for the prosthetics they would have to put on my face to look old or evil or whatever it was they were making me look like. So somewhere along the line, someone got that mask and made a mask of it for [the holiday] Halloween.”
Why did the filmmakers choose that face?
The choice of that mask was discussed in the third season of the Netflix series The Movies That Made Us where guest Tommy Lee Wallace, the production designer and editor for Halloween, revealed he found it at a magic shop on Hollywood Boulevard.
“Up on the shelves were these full face masks of Richard Nixon, and down at the end was Mr. Spock. And right next to it was this blank face Capt. Kirk,” Tommy shared.
Michael almost had a different mask
He said he also bought an Emmett Kelly clown mask along with the Kirk mask, but they didn’t think the Emmett one was creepy enough. Instead, they took the Kirk mask and made some cosmetic adjustments like removing the eyebrows and sideburns and enlarging the eye hole. They also darkened the hair a few shades and painted the whole face white.
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