Makeup Artist Who Prepped the Beatles for Their Debut on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show' Dies at 101
Riccie Johnson was an iconic makeup artist who spent over half a century working for 60 Minutes. She was also the one who helped The Beatles get camera-ready before their first televised appearance in the US on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was seen by over 73 million viewers.
When speaking about her interaction with The Beatles in a 2016 interview, she told Mo Rocca, "I heard all this din outside. I looked out the window and saw all these young people. And I talked to the doorman. And he said, ‘Oh, some group from England.' I said, ‘Wow. This looks serious!' So I called home and said to my husband, ‘I can get the children in to a dress rehearsal.' The children didn't want to come. So of course, now they're very sorry about that!"
Johnson also revealed that, years later, she ran into Paul McCartney in a CBS hallway and he remembered her. He said, "You used pancake makeup and eyeliner, and when we asked you about the eyeliner, you said, ‘It'll be fine.'"
Johnson first started working in makeup in 1950 when she was hired by NBC. She ended up getting hired to work on 60 Minutes when it first started airing in September 1968. "Through the decades, she touched up the likes of Dan Rather, Morley Safer, Roger Mudd, Ed Bradley, Bob Simon, Leslie Stahl, Anderson Cooper, Lara Logan, Steve Kroft and Scott Pelley," The Hollywood Reporter stated. She also worked with stars like Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, and Walter Cronkite.
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When speaking with Makeup Artist Magazine, Johnson revealed how honored she was to work with such big names. "When you're working-like when I made up The Beatles-I had no idea they would be so big. I just knew there were a lot of screaming kids out on the street, and there was talk about how important the group would be in the music world. But who knew how big they were going to be? And that's the same with everything that I've done."
She continued, "Of course, if you make up a president, he's a president. But a lot of things that you do … Your Show of Shows, did we know that was going to be such history? Did we know 60 Minutes was going to last all these years? It's just wonderful because [I've made so many] professional friends. I feel very honored to be able to say that I worked with them … and to have them acknowledge me."
Johnson passed away on January 3, at the age of 101. She has 7 children, 14 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.
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This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 11:46 AM.