In a Medium essay, J.J. Abrams recalls his early passion for film being encouraged via letter and in person by childhood idol, Dick Smith, a special make-up effects artist who brought his talents to The Exorcist, The Godfather, Scanners and more. Smith was similarly influential in the development of Guillermo del Toro. The opening:

As an aspiring and chubby student filmmaker in the ‘70s and early ‘80s, I was obsessed with movies, notably monster, science fiction and horror films.

I would spend my weekends making Super 8 movies using any technique I could to kill my friends and blow things up with sheer and utter realism.

But in that era, technique was hard to come by.

Before the Internet and DVD special features demystified pretty much everything about the process, movies were sort of like crop circles.

How the hell did they get there? How the hell did they do that?

Avenues to unlocking the secrets of filmmaking were few and far between.

It was in 1981 as a 9th grader and, how do I say this, an insanely rabid Dick Smith fan after admiring his work from The Exorcist to Scanners, The Godfather and Altered States, I wrote the man a fan letter — never expecting to hear back.

I came home from school one day and found a cardboard box addressed to me. The return address was Dick Smith, Larchmont, New York.

My heart pounded as I opened the box.

The enclosed note read, “Dear J.J., Here’s an old, but clean, tongue fromThe Exorcist. Put peanut butter inside it, to stick it on. Or moisten inside and put dental-plated adhesive powder inside it. Yours, Dick.”

My mother was very concerned.•