Man of a thousand faces: makeup master Kevyn Aucoin lived his dreams before his death at 40 shocked the fashion world. (culture).

I first met Kevyn Aucoin in his hometown of Lafayette, La. I was there to interview him for a TV documentary about his life; the mayor was presenting him with a key to the city. His family surrounded him, and his handsome partner, Jeremy Antunes, stood at his side. It was a monumental occasion for a gay man who had been forced to drop out of school and leave town simply because he was different. Even Cher called his cell phone to congratulate him.

Later, as Aucoin prepared for his high school reunion, at which he would face the same kids who once ostracized him, he seemed genuinely at peace. "I don't take it personally anymore," he said. "I really feel forgiveness."

But Aucoin never made it to his reunion that night. Instead, he ended up in the local emergency room complaining of a severe headache. The doctors attributed his condition to stress and dehydration. At the time they had no idea Aucoin was suffering from acromegaly--a rare disease in which the pituitary gland produces too much growth hormone, enlarging feet, hands, and facial features and causing brain tumors like the one that took his life May 7 in New York City.

Cindy Crawford once said, "Kevyn is an artist. I mean, he transcends makeup. He's a genius. I just think makeup is the thing he happens to work in."

His paint was lipstick, blush, mascara; his canvas, the most celebrated faces in the world. His celebrity client roster included Barbra Streisand, Tina Turner, Nicole Kidman, Elizabeth Taylor, Isabella Rossellini, Jennifer Lopez, and many more. Gwyneth Paltrow said, "I really value his friendship and his artistry." Cher called him "a genius." Janet Jackson observed, "He works miracles."

He was born on Valentine's Day, 1962, in Shreveport, La. A month later he was adopted by Thelma and Isidore Aucoin, a Lafayette couple who later adopted three more children.

"I knew I was different from the very beginning," Aucoin told me, relaxing at his garden apartment in Chelsea. "I think by the time I was 6, I realized I was gay," he mused. But for a child of the Deep South, being gay carried serious negative connotations.

"I went through school getting beat up every day, with teachers turning their backs and ignoring the whole mess," Aucoin said. He retreated into a fantasy world of fashion photos and movie magazines. When he was 11, he began making up his younger sister Carla, then 5, to look like a model. He left school when he was 15. "I had to quit high school because two kids tried to kill me in a pickup truck," he said.

Aucoin soon moved to New York, where photographer Stephen Meisel gave the self-taught young artist his first big break doing makeup on actress Meg Tilly for a Vogue photo shoot. When he landed his first Vogue cover with model Cindy Crawford in 1986, Aucoin's career really took off. It wasn't long before Aucoin himself, with countless magazine covers and an enormous celebrity following, became legendary.

He said his three books, The Art of Makeup, Making Faces, and Face Forward--two of which made the New York Times best-seller list--helped him "celebrate the beauty of everyone and make everyone feel that they're special--because they are. It's not just six-foot, blond, blue-eyed girls in the world."

While makeup was how he earned his living, Aucoin felt his true mission was to empower gay teens so they could be spared the anguish he felt growing up. He was a huge supporter of the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a New York center for gay youth.

As we ended our interview, Aucoin burst out with an affirmation that now sounds eerily like his epitaph: "I've fulfilled every dream I've ever wanted and 10 times more. I met every single one [of the glamorous celebrity divas] who were my idols growing up. And I became friends with them. That's what proved to me that you can do anything you want. I've done it with integrity and love. I've done it with a sense of who I am. When I was 6 years old and I realized I was different, I embraced it. And I'm very proud of myself."

Kaye is a television writer-producer working in Los Angeles.