In the 1980 film “The Elephant Man,” the director David Lynch initially treated prosthetics so cavalierly that he planned to create the title character’s severely deformed face himself. Only after Lynch hit a dead end did he enlist Christopher Tucker, an autodidact who honed his craft by reading chemistry books about foam latex and testing out concoctions in his mother’s oven in England. (“She was not very pleased — it’s quite smelly,” he said in an interview.)

Given just five weeks to design and sculpt an enormous and grotesque head for the actor John Hurt, Tucker forged a double-layered foam latex design, which enlarged Hurt’s facial contours, then overlaid the Elephant Man’s face on top. The practical application was grueling: Hurt had to arrive on set at 4 a.m. and sit in the makeup chair for eight hours as the prosthetic was applied. After shooting, he had to wait an additional two hours while it was removed. “It was a real marathon,” Tucker said.

The long hours paid off when, following a protest campaign, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences established a permanent makeup and hairstyle Oscars category the following year. (By that point, however, “The Elephant Man” was no longer eligible.)