Star Trek: 10 Production Secrets You Never Knew About Klingons
3. John Colicos Helped Devise What The Klingons Originally Looked Like
John Colicos appeared in the Original Series and Deep Space Nine as Kor, one of the three Dahar Masters along with Koloth and Kang. As he was first in the door, he ended up being deeply involved in devising the physical make-up that the rest of the Klingons in the Original Series would also wear.
He described his meeting with Fred Phillips, the make-up artist, as a case of the blind leading the blind. Colicos had no idea what a Klingon was supposed to look like, and he assumed that he would just sit in the chair and be transformed. He was not expecting Phllips' to ask him 'So what the hell does a Klingon look like?'
Together, they started to devise the look. First, Colicos took the brief that the Klingons were meant to look 'Oriental', so he assumed Ghengis Khan as the first inspiration. He asked Phillips to give him a Fu Manchu moustache and beard, while the make-up artist then added lace eyebrows, which he darkened with a pencil to make them more angular and bushy at the same time.
In the end, Colicos was delighted with what they came up with. So too was the finance department, as this make-up process was incredibly cheap when compared to the costly Romulans. Thanks to this, the Klingons replaced the Romulans as the ongoing nemeses for Kirk in the franchise.