The Unbelievable Story of How Bobbie Weiner Became Bloody Mary
At 46, Bobbie Weiner, CLA ‘67, found herself divorced, back in school and starting over. She also found herself covered in fake blood. Meet the Temple alum who went from running a thrift store to doing makeup for Titanic and the U.S. military.
By Eddy Kosik
When Bobbie Weiner, CLA ’67, was 46, she received the nickname that would make her famous in Hollywood. A divorce had led her to return to school in the early 90s in Los Angeles to study makeup. Just after graduating, her teacher helped her connect with the production team of the 1994 horror movie Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings. Her job was to decorate a dollhouse with an extravagant amount of fake blood. Upon finishing her task, Bobbie returned to her trailer covered in blood. Before she could clean herself up, she was called back to decorate another set.
She remembers the sound guy noticing her first: “Oh, here comes Bloody Mary!” he shouted.
Bobbie Weiner with the first issue of her comic book in a store.
Bobbie Weiner with the first issue of her comic book in a store.
The nickname stuck. Bloody Mary would become a trusted name in special effects makeup and horror cosmetics—not to mention the No. 1 supplier of camouflage makeup for the U.S. military. But long before she earned that nickname, Bobbie was a teenager in Philadelphia whose parents had a humbler dream in mind for her: to see her graduate from high school. They themselves had never attended school past fifth grade.
Growing up in the Mount Airy and Elkins Park neighborhoods of Philadelphia, Bobbie found a job in a thrift store in Glenside at 15. She finished high school and enrolled for an associate’s degree at Temple.
“I graduated by the skin of my teeth,” she said. “I mean, I was just the worst student.”
That may have been the case, but Bobbie remembers earning an A in speech, a skill that would prove useful throughout her career. While she was still in school, the owners of the thrift store put it on the market, and Bobbie’s father helped her acquire it, giving Bobbie her first chance to run a business of her own.
“The really great clothes, I ripped them up and I made a pillow business; I was called the Pillow Lady.”
It was one of several businesses that Bobbie would build during her years in Philadelphia. She also started a live-in maid business, serving wealthy families in Elkins Park. She took particular pride in looking after the women who worked for her.
“Nobody else was looking out for them,” Bobbie remembered. “That’s still pretty much how I do my business today. You can’t just think of yourself. It isn’t about me. It’s about the people that work for me.”
"That’s still pretty much how I do my business today. You can’t just think of yourself. It isn’t about me. It’s about the people that work for me.”
Bobbie at one of her Halloween attractions.
Bobbie at one of her Halloween attractions.
Her businesses became successful enough that Temple invited Bobbie back to teach a Saturday class to women. She found that she was a little too popular with the students and quit after the second class.
“I thought it was great until the women started coming to my store during the week. Suddenly they all wanted to open their own thrift shops. They thought it would be a walk in the park, but you must know how to deal with people.”
Bobbie ran her businesses in Philadelphia for 16 years. Then, in the winter of 1983, a few terrible storms convinced her to move to California. Not long after moving to the West Coast, she married a prominent doctor. She was 36.
“I became Miss Country Club,” Bobbie joked.
Ten years later, they divorced after the doctor announced that he was leaving her for a 19-year-old woman. At 46, Bobbie found herself starting over, returning to school to study makeup. That decision led to the job on Pumpkinhead 2 and Bobbie’s nickname, Bloody Mary.
Not long after, James Cameron began assembling his production crew for Titanic. His key makeup artist called Bobbie, saying that she’d heard Bobbie was “really good with dead people.” The makeup artist offered her an audition.
“I drove down to Rosarito [in Mexico] and James Cameron was waiting for me. He had 35 people lined up, and he wanted to see how fast I could make them dead.”
Bobbie did it in seven minutes, fast enough to impress James Cameron. He gave her the job of doing makeup for every dead body that appeared in the movie, including Leonardo DiCaprio. Most of those were the frozen corpses of men and women who had drowned when the ship sank. Bobbie remembers being especially motivated to get the makeup right the first time so that she didn’t have to join the actors in the pools that they used for the ocean scenes in order to correct anything.
Titanic was a hit. Suddenly Bloody Mary was everywhere. “I was written up in magazines. I was on TV shows, morning shows, making people dead for the broadcasters to show how I did it.”
Bobbie Weiner with the crew of a Black Hawk military helicopter.
Bobbie Weiner with the crew of a Black Hawk military helicopter.
All that media attention brought Bobbie another unexpected opportunity: camouflage makeup for the U.S. military. A buyer from Camp Pendleton, the largest military base on the West Coast, reached out to Bobbie and gave her three months to develop new face paint.
“I figured out how to do it,” Bobbie said. “That’s it. I just did it.”
That business deal led to her own company, Bloody Mary, which now does the camo makeup for the entire U.S. military, as well as the militaries of a few other countries.
The company also sells Halloween cosmetics to the general public, as well as a Bloody Mary comic book, hot sauce and, of course, Bloody Mary cocktail mix.
Bobbie has also shared her life story in a book, I Can Do This: The Bloody Mary Story. Bobbie says that she brings cartons of the book to the five or six conventions she attends every year. She always sells out.
Bobbie Weiner receiving the gold medal for "Best Value" from the U.S. military. She received the medal twice, once in 1999 and again in 2002.
Bobbie Weiner receiving the gold medal for "Best Value" from the U.S. military. She received the medal twice, once in 1999 and again in 2002.
“It’s a book about starting over,” Bobbie explained. She said that people relate to her journey and to her triumph over difficult circumstances. It’s led to her being regularly invited as a guest speaker for crowds with as many as 10,000 people.
She never prepares an outline for the talks, but Bobbie has developed a signature opening line over the years that always lands with audiences: “My name is Bobbie Weiner. They call me Bloody Mary. And I have one thing to tell you: I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. And you know what? Rich is better.”
She often credits luck for success, but looking back, it’s difficult to see her career as entirely accidental.
Bobbie at a convention.
Bobbie at a convention.
From the thrift store in Glenside to the set of Titanic, Bobbie has repeatedly made unexpected opportunities something of her own. The woman who once had to stop teaching at Temple just because her students couldn’t get enough of her now draws crowds of thousands to hear her speak.
“I think it sticks with you,” she said about Temple. “When I graduated, it was really special for my parents. I always said that I did it for them, but truthfully, I did it for myself. In the end, I did it for me.”
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