The Wicked Witch of the West (The Wizard of Oz)
Talk about cartoonishness. I mean, how many other witches here have green skin?
However, it appears that the Wicked Witch of the West (played by Margaret Hamilton) was the originator of the green skin trend. Before that, witches had otherworldly skin, but it was usually another shade like red or orange. As it turns out, the makers of the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, was so gaga over the ability to shoot on color film that filmmakers went kind of nuts over color. Hence, the eye-blinding tones of Munchkinland, the Emerald City, and the Witch’s bright green skin.
By the way, that green face paint was no joke. In order to get just the right shade of green, makeup artists used a copper-based paint that wasn’t exactly meant for human skin. It could only be removed with rubbing alcohol and still left poor Margaret Hamilton with green-tinted skin for weeks afterward. It could also have made her seriously sick if ingested, so she had to drink all of her food via straws.
Even worse, the paint was flammable. During one scene, Hamilton’s costume caught on fire. The incident left her with first and second degrees burns on her face and hands. She was in the hospital for six weeks after that incident.
Hopefully, the Witch’s lasting pop culture stardom helped Hamilton feel better about the burns and near-deadly levels of copper in her makeup. Look around at all of the witchy decorations today and see how many green-skinned beauties you find, after all.
The Witch herself was an interesting character. She was understandably upset that Dorothy Gale’s tornado-blown house landed on her sister, the Wicked Witch of the East. Wasn’t it reasonable for her to want her sister’s ruby slippers back? Even the fact that meddling Glinda the “Good” Witch zapped them onto Dorothy’s feet shouldn’t have made it okay.
Plus, the Wicked Witch of the West has a pretty cool castle. The flying monkey servants might be a little creepy to some, but they surely have to be convenient. Now, if only the Witch could have done something about her life-threatening water allergy.