Brian Johnson | |
---|---|
Born | Brian Johncock 29 June 1939/1940 (aged 80/81) |
Nationality | British |
Occupation(s) | Special effects artist, film director |
Years active | 1957–2006 |
Known for | Alien (1979) The Empire Strikes Back (1980) |
Television | Thunderbirds (1965–66) Space: 1999 (1975–78) |
Awards | Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (1980) Special Achievement Academy Award (1981) Saturn Award (1981) BAFTA Award (1987) |
Brian Johnson (born 29 June 1939 [1] or 29 June 1940 [2] ) is a British designer and director of film and television special effects.
Born Brian Johncock, [3] he changed his surname to Johnson during the 1960s. [3] Joining the team of special effects artist Les Bowie, Johnson started his career behind the scenes for Bowie Films on productions such as On The Buses, and for Hammer Films. He is known for his special effects work on TV series including Thunderbirds (1965–66) and films including Alien (1979), [4] for which he received the 1980 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (shared with H. R. Giger, Carlo Rambaldi, Dennis Ayling and Nick Allder). Previously, he had built miniature spacecraft models for Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey . [5]
Johnson's work on Space: 1999 influenced the effects of the Star Wars films of the 1970s and 1980s. [6] Impressed by his work, George Lucas visited Johnson during the production of the TV series to offer him the role of effects supervisor for the 1977 film. Having already been commissioned for the second series of Space: 1999, Johnson was unable to accept at the time. [7] He worked on the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), whose special effects were recognised in the form of a 1981 Special Achievement Academy Award (which Johnson shared with Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren and Bruce Nicholson).
Johnson has won Academy Awards for both Alien (1979) and The Empire Strikes Back (1980). He was further nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Dragonslayer (1981). In addition, Johnson is the recipient of a Saturn Award for The Empire Strikes Back and a BAFTA Award for James Cameron's Aliens .
Sylvia Beatrice Anderson was an English television and film producer, writer, voice actress and costume designer, best known for her collaborations with Gerry Anderson, her husband between 1960 and 1981. In addition to serving as co-creator and co-writer on their TV series during the 1960s and early 1970s, Anderson's primary contribution was character development and costume design. She regularly directed the fortnightly voice recording sessions, and provided the voices of many female and child characters. She also helped develop the shows and characters, in particular creating the iconic characters of Lady Penelope and Parker in Thunderbirds.
Space: 1999 is a British science-fiction television programme that ran for two series from 1975 to 1977. In the opening episode, set in the year 1999, nuclear waste stored on the Moon's far side explodes, knocking the Moon out of orbit and sending it, as well as the 311 inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, hurtling uncontrollably into space. Space: 1999 was the last production by the partnership of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and was the most expensive series produced for British television up to that time. The first series was co-produced by ITC Entertainment and Italian broadcaster RAI, while the second series was produced solely by ITC.
John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. is an American special effects artist, pioneer in the development of the use of computers in filmmaking and recipient of three Academy Awards, among many other awards and prizes. He was one of the original employees of Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects and computer graphics division of Lucasfilm. He is well known as the special effects lead on the original Star Wars, helping bring the original visuals for lightsabers, space battles between X-wings and TIE fighters, and Force powers to the screen. He also led special effects on many other movies, including Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Stuart Little, X-Men: First Class, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.
Derek Meddings was a British film and television special effects designer. He was initially noted for his work on the "Supermarionation" TV puppet series produced by Gerry Anderson, and later for the 1970s and 1980s James Bond and Superman film series.
Peter Curtis Lamont was a British set decorator, art director, and production designer most noted for his collaborations with filmmaker James Cameron, and for working on eighteen James Bond films, from Goldfinger (1964) to Casino Royale (2006). The only Bond film that he did not work on during that period was Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), as he was working on Cameron's Titanic (1997) at the time. He also worked extensively as a set dresser on the Carry On series in the 1960s.
David Nelson Godfrey Mitton was a British director, producer, writer, model maker and special effects technician. He was best known for producing and directing the children's television programmes Thomas & Friends and TUGS. During the 1960s, he worked with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson as a special effects technician on series such as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, Joe 90, The Secret Service and UFO.
David W. Allen was an American film and television stop motion model (puppet) animator.
Richard Alan Baker, known professionally as Rick Baker, is an American retired special make-up effects creator and actor. He is mostly known for his creature designs and effects. Baker has won the Academy Award for Best Makeup a record seven times from a record eleven nominations, beginning when he won the inaugural award for the 1981 horror comedy film An American Werewolf in London.
"Terror in New York City" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by David Elliott and David Lane, it was first broadcast on 21 October 1965 on ATV Midlands as the fourth episode of Series One. In the official running order, it is the 13th episode. It had its first UK-wide network broadcast on 22 November 1991 on BBC2.
Gregory Nicotero is an American special make-up effects creator, television producer, and director. His first major job in special effects makeup was on the George A. Romero film Day of the Dead (1985), under the tutelage of Romero and make-up effects veteran Tom Savini.
Norman Reynolds was a British production designer and art director, best known for his work on the original Star Wars trilogy and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Greg Cannom is an American special make-up effects artist. He is the recipient of several accolades, including five Academy Awards and two Saturn Awards, and has been nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards and four BAFTA Awards.
Kenneth Ralston is an American visual effects artist, currently the Visual Effect Supervisor and Creative Head at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Ralston began his career at the commercial animation and visual effects company, Cascade Pictures in Hollywood, where he worked on over 150 advertising campaigns in the early 1970s. In 1976, he was hired at Industrial Light & Magic by Dennis Muren to help George Lucas create the effects for Star Wars. He remained at ILM for 20 years before joining Sony Pictures Imageworks as president. Ralston is best known for his work in the films of Robert Zemeckis.
David Tomblin, OBE was a film and television producer, assistant director, and director.
Nick Allder is an English special effects supervisor and coordinator. He started his career as an assistant camera operator and moved, after eight years, into special effects. He has won multiple awards, including an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), and a BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects for the science-fiction film The Fifth Element (1997). Allder has worked on the set of high-grossing films such as the epic space opera The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and the historical drama film Braveheart (1995).
John Richardson is a British special effects supervisor. He is best known for his work on the James Bond film series, all the Harry Potter film series (2001-2011), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Aliens (1986). For the latter, he won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 1987 ceremony. He won the BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects for his work on the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011), for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award at the 2012 ceremony.
Christopher Scarabosio is a sound editor who started working in sound on Gumby Adventures (1988) as a Sound Effects Assistant, and later as a Sound Editor on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. He usually works at Skywalker Sound.
Dave Elsey is a make-up artist known for special make-up effects, creature effects and animatronics in films such as X-Men: First Class, Ghost Rider, Star Wars, Hellraiser, Alien 3, and Indiana Jones. He was born on February 2, 1967, in London, England to Marie and Derek Elsey. From 1999 to 2011, Elsey lived in Sydney, Australia with his wife Lou while working on the TV science fiction series Farscape. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
David Acord is an American sound editor and voice actor best known for his contribution as a supervising sound editor of the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Acord received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing and British Academy Film Award for Best Sound for his work on The Force Awakens, with fellow sound editor Matthew Wood. He also provided the voice of several characters in the film, including the stormtrooper FN-2199. Though the voice role is minimal, the character gained considerable attention on the Internet following the film's release. Acord also had minor voice roles as an Imperial Male PA and two stormtroopers on episodes of Star Wars Rebels. Acord also voiced Grogu for the Disney Plus series The Mandalorian. In 2015, Acord was one of the sound designers for Disney Infinity video game. In 2020, he received his second Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Editing for 2019 film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, shared with Matthew Wood.
Anthony John Dyson was a British special effects (SPFX) designer, best-known for working on the R2-D2 droid props used in The Empire Strikes Back and subsequent films in the Star Wars film series.