George Masters; Hair Stylist, Makeup Expert to the Stars

George Masters, a Hollywood hair stylist and makeup artist whose clients ranged from Marilyn Monroe to Lynda Bird Johnson to Dustin Hoffman as “Tootsie,” has died. He was 62.

Masters died of natural causes in Los Angeles on March 6, his friend Jeff Platts reported Monday.

Born in Detroit, Masters began coiffing Grosse Point women when he was 17. After working in major New York and Los Angeles salons, he traveled with Monroe as her personal makeup artist.

“I worked with Marilyn during the last three years of her life and she was among the least ‘naturally’ sexy or beautiful women I’ve glamorized,” Masters told The Times in 1977. “It took me hours to get her all pulled together. But eventually, when she was set to go--pow! She exploded.”

Masters became an international celebrity in 1966 when he made over first daughter Lynda Bird Johnson (now Mrs. Charles Robb) for her date with actor George Hamilton to attend the Academy Awards ceremony.

“Of all the subjects I’ve worked on, she was my greatest challenge,” Masters said years later. “I spent four hours on her make-over for the Oscars. She was only 19 and kept asking, ‘Why is all this necessary? Why can’t people like me for myself, the way I am?’ ”

In addition to making up Hoffman as a female in the 1982 comedy movie “Tootsie,” Masters frequently handled the makeup and hair of a favored client, actress Ann-Margret, for roles in such films as “The Train Robbers” with John Wayne in 1973, and the 1990s television films “Nobody’s Children” and “Our Sons.” His other movie credits include “Tender Is the Night” starring Jennifer Jones in 1962.

Masters’ celebrity client list included major Hollywood beauties such as Lauren Bacall, Diahann Carroll, Arlene Dahl, Bo Derek, Marlene Dietrich and Sophia Loren, business mavens such as Elizabeth Arden and such political wives as the Duchess of Windsor, Rosalyn Carter and Nancy Reagan.

In recent years, Masters, who was author of a popular advice and gossip book, “The Masters Way to Beauty,” offered $350 beauty consultations in high-end stores across the country.

“The average housewife is more difficult to help than an actress,” he told The Times. “The housewife doesn’t really want to change. An actress knows I can help.”

Masters is survived by two sisters, Irene Popp and Evelyn Guin.