# Cause of facial abnormality? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527 "2011-11-10T19:18:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/1 "2011-11-10T19:18:53Z")
There was an actor with one of the strangest faces I have ever seen in my life. His name is [Daniel Emilfork](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1573&bih=807&q=daniel%20emilfork&gbv=2&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=560l2457l0l3255l12l8l0l0l0l0l226l1206l1.6.1l8l0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi), and acted in a number of French cult films. The shape of his skull is very narrow; he has nearly no chin to speak of; and the distance between his nose and his mouth is remarkably long. What, genetically, causes such an appearance? Or is it something non-genetic, such as malnutrition during fetal development? ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/2 "2011-11-10T19:27:28Z")
Well, I am no expert, but I have to disagree with your assessment of his face. There is no one of his facial features that is outside the range of normal, although his nose looks rather large (based on the photos). He does have a receding chin, but lots of people have that. He has along upper lip, but again not outside the range of normal. The second photo on the top row shows his face’s basic normality. I think he purposely exaggerated his face’s potential for grotesquerie to get acting work. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/3 "2011-11-10T19:40:28Z")
He looks slightly like Rondo Hatton, who had acromegaly, but I daresay if had a full head of hair and a pair of glasses, he’d be ugly but not otherwise remarkable. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/4 "2011-11-10T20:39:11Z")
His face resembles those of many people I have seen with primordial dwarfism. But obviously he is not a dwarf, doesn’t appear to have any health conditions whatsoever. He looked much more normal [as a young man](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l8o1dgRiVl1qcl8ymo1_500.jpg), too. With age his face got gaunt and his nose grew larger, made him much more funny-looking. I think the only truly unusual thing about his face is that his lower jaw is very underdeveloped, which makes an odd contrast with his large beaky nose. Receding chins can just happen, for a variety of reasons (genetics, nutrition, TMJ). ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/5 "2011-11-10T21:24:55Z")
Even that picture of him as a young man - which is so bizarre and posed as to offer very little clear analysis of his facial structure - you can see his strangely sunken cheeks. His face reminds me of children with progeria, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/6 "2011-11-10T21:51:02Z")
His nose is what strikes me the most. The top of it is at the brow ridge rather than at eye level, it’s unusally wide at the top, the bridge is prominent, and the tip angles down (the opposite of an upturned nose), all of which together give it a rather odd appearance. The rest of his features – narrow face, weak chin, thick lower lip, splayed teeth, protruding ears – all seem to be within the normal range of such things, but the combination of all of this on one face does seem unusual. ---
**Author:** ![awldune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@awldune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/awldune)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/7 "2011-11-10T21:55:10Z")
I agree with **Roderick** – Emilfork is well within the bounds of ordinary “weird looking” without requiring any medical explanation. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/8 "2011-11-10T23:28:29Z")
[Here’s more](http://www.wiki-cine.com/photos/6427/42356.jpg) [pictures of](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_96uP6vDZMT8/S18yTStvyrI/AAAAAAAAG2M/f1lY-rPSz3A/s400/DEVIL+-+DEVILS+NIGHTMARE.png) [a younger Emilfork](http://image.toutlecine.com/photos/0/s/s/0ss-117-se-dechaine-1963-02-g.jpg) - he’s a little funny looking, but not nearly so much as when he’s elderly. In fact it rather looks as though he’s wearing poorly-fitting false teeth in his later films. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/9 "2011-11-10T23:58:52Z")
I know a few people who look like him. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/10 "2012-01-27T22:22:27Z")
Bumping this thread, because I discovered another actor with - while not exactly the same - a similar face structure. [Richard Belzer.](http://artobserved.com/artimages/2008/05/p1000147.jpg) It’s not as evident because he has a lot of hair on his head though. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/11 "2012-01-27T23:50:49Z")
They’ve both got too much distance between their earlobes and the point of their chins. Kim Jong Il had the opposite problem. The explanation is not that they are some variant of human genetics, but rather that they are different species entirely. It is argued in some circles that they do not even hail from this galaxy. ---
**Author:** ![heavyarms553](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/779978/32.png) [@heavyarms553](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heavyarms553)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/12 "2012-01-28T00:37:53Z")
Ill ask a friend of mine who is a geneticist next week whether she thinks there is anything going on with him. Shes a genius with genetic disease. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/13 "2012-01-28T01:47:28Z")
He’s a normal guy with a fairly long face. This is what comes of watching too much TV: normal people who aren’t TV-pretty seem “abnormal”. Also he’s thin, which is rapidly becoming “abnormal” too. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/14 "2012-01-28T02:19:11Z")
When I saw the first picture, I thought it was the guy who plays Death on Supernatural: [Julian Richings](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0724995/). Both men’s faces just seem quirky to me, not deformed or “abnormal” in any significant way. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/15 "2012-01-28T02:38:48Z")
In a lot of the pictures linked by the OP he appears to be intentionally distorting his features. He squints or bulges his eyes, and distorts his mouth in a variety of ways. When he isn’t doing that, he just has a long-ish face and bald head. As a character actor he may be used to exagerrating his features and is publicly recognized that way. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/16 "2012-01-28T03:05:20Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > He’s a normal guy with a fairly long face. > > This is what comes of watching too much TV: normal people who aren’t TV-pretty seem “abnormal”. Also he’s thin, which is rapidly becoming “abnormal” too. I don’t agree at all - as I said, in another thread, two months ago: [QUOTE=Me] I also disagree with the premise of “Hollywood ugly” and that the “average person on the street” is substantially less attractive than movie/TV stars. No. Attractive facial features are actually surprisingly common, if you look at the core facial features - people who are truly ugly are outliers. But “the average person on the street” is 1. Overweight 2. Badly dressed 3. Has poor posture All of those things can be corrected, though. It doesn’t mean the “average person on the street” is ugly - it means they’re not presenting themselves properly. [/QUOTE] Believe me, I analyze the facial features of everyone I see probably more than anyone else in the world. Faces fascinate me and always have. I think the majority of faces that I see are average to good looking; the other circumstances surrounding them, like fat, posture and hairstyle, are often poor. Daniel Emilfork has _very_ atypical facial features. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/17 "2012-01-28T22:39:47Z")
Being a mouth breather in childhood or adolescense can also lead to a recessed lower jaw, and give you the long face look. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/18 "2012-01-28T22:58:45Z")
He reminds me a little of [Vincent Schiavelli](http://trialx.com/celebrities/2011/07/04/vincent-schiavelli-photos/) . ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2012, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/19 "2012-01-28T23:26:55Z")
Yes, similar. Schiavelli also has droopy-eye which adds another strange dimension to his visage. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2012, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527/20 "2012-01-29T02:37:32Z")
[In this pic](http://www.lecoinducinephage.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/47162136.jpg) I think you can see his facial structure most clearly. He has (it appears) a relatively small jaw compared to his skull vs the typical male Caucasian phenotype configuration. He has almost no fat in his face vs other people which only adds to the odd look. His nose is also out of alignment with the standard configuration. It’ very borderline as to whether you can say he is just very off the norm or actually is expressing some genetic marker for X disease or condition. Given he’s apparently old, healthy and intelligent I’d be inclined to go with “not handsome” vs it being some congenital genetic issue. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cause-of-facial-abnormality/602527.md?page=2)