Makeup artist Shu Uemura, the founder of the internationally known shu uemura cosmetics brand, died of acute pneumonia Dec. 29, his family said Tuesday. He was 79.

After graduating from a beauty school in Tokyo, Uemura moved to the United States in the mid-1950s to become the sole Japanese male makeup artist plying his trade in the Hollywood movie world.

Actress Shirley MacLaine and singer-actor Frank Sinatra were among his many clients in Hollywood.

Back home, he opened a Hollywood-style makeup studio in Tokyo in 1964 to teach others the art of makeup.

In 1967, Uemura established Japan Makeup, the predecessor of Shu Uemura Cosmetics Inc., to branch out into the cosmetics business. The cleansing oil he developed became a hit product in Japan.

In the latter half of the 1980s, Uemura once again met success when he began selling shu uemura-brand cosmetics overseas.