One of the pioneering female make-up artists of Local 706, Robin Dee LaVigne was the daughter of make-up artist Emile LaVigne. After her apprenticeship in the Producers Association training program, she became a Journeyman in 1977. Robin worked on some of the most popular sit-com and nighttime dramas – most notably Seinfeld, Dynasty, Ellen, The Tracey Ullman Show, In the Heat of the Night and The Colbys. The father-daughter make-up team actually got to work together on The Colbys for two episodes in 1986. Her creativity was displayed on The Tracey Ullman Show for which she won an Emmy (along with Carol Schwartz and Tom and Bari Burman). Never complacent, she respectfully challenged the old studio system that only gave credit to the studio make-up department heads. Her reasoning was that while on a distant location, she did all of the work and should be given the proper credit. At that time, the determination was that the studio department head was actually in charge and her request was denied but the production department heads began getting their own credit, little by little. She was a classically trained make-up artist with ability to work in every genre and those talents served her well. Her love of painting translated onto beautiful canvases after she retired, and she was a talented photographer as well.
Robin retired in 2002 due to health problems, but continued her artistic endeavors. She passed away on October 6, 2015 from heart failure, and her son Andrew Erie notified our union that services had been private.
