Way Bandy

Way Bandy, (probably born Ronald D. Wright) who was one of the fashion world’s best known and highest-paid makeup artists and best-selling authors, died of AIDS at the age of 45. His death was reported in an August 15, 1986 New York Times obituary which is summarized here. Way arrived in New York in 1966 and became a makeup instructor and skin care specialist, and in 1969 became the salon director of the makeup department at Charles of the Ritz. He left in 1971 to become a freelance makeup artist and consultant to cosmetics manufacturers. He made up some of the world’s most celebrated women including Elizabeth Taylor, Raquel Welch, Catherine Deneuve, Lauren Hutton, Farrah Fawcett, Barbara Streisand, Gloria Vanderbilt, Lee Radziwill, Cher, Sigourney Weaver, Nancy Reagan, and Cheryl Teigs. Elizabeth Taylor once told the Wall Street Journal that Mr. Bandy was “like an artist using a palette.” Photographer Francesco Scavullo said, “Way was not only one of the greatest makeup artists of our time, but also one of the most beautiful men in mind and spirit.” He was a bachelor and asked that survivors not be identified.