Chris Walas | |
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 Walas in his self made documentary detailing his life's work | |
| Born | Christopher James Walas 1955 (age 69–70) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
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| Years active | 1978–present |
Christopher James Walas (born 1955) is an American special effects artist, make-up effects artist, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his work on the film The Fly (1986), [1] for which he won an Academy Award and was nominated for two British Academy Film Awards.
His main body of work is with special effects in a wide variety of films, from science fiction to action-adventure. His work on The Fly led to his directorial debut on The Fly II . [2] He also won an Academy Award for Special Effects Make-up on The Fly and is well known for his creation of the Gremlins. Walas was also partially responsible for creating the famous sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark when the Nazis melt from the intense heat created by the Ark of the Covenant. [3] Walas created false heads for Ronald Lacey, Wolf Kahler, and Paul Freeman.
| 2002 | Dark Heaven | designer: angels |
| 1991 | Curse III: Blood Sacrifice | monster design |
| 1991 | Naked Lunch | special effects and monster design |
| 1990 | Arachnophobia | creature effects supervisor |
| 1989 | The Fly II | effects designer and creator: Chris Walas Inc. |
| 1987 | House II: The Second Story | makeup and creature effects designer |
| 1986 | The Fly | creature effects |
| 1985 | Enemy Mine | aliens creator and designer: Chris Walas Inc. special creature makeup and effects director: Chris Walas Inc. |
| 1984 | Gremlins | creator: Gremlins |
| 1983 | Return of the Jedi | creature consultant |
| 1982 | E.T. the Extraterrestrial | model maker (uncredited) |
| 1981 | Dragonslayer | close-up dragon: ILM |
| 1980 | Airplane! | special projects |
| 1980 | Humanoids from the Deep | special effects (uncredited) |
| 1979 | Up from the Depths | special effects |
| 1978 | Piranha | special properties |
| 1995 | Jade | special makeup effects |
| 1995 | Virtuosity | special makeup effects |
| 1989 | Tales from the Crypt: "The Switch" | special makeup effects |
| 1985 | Enemy Mine | special makeup effects |
| 1984 | Gremlins | special makeup effects |
| 1981 | Raiders of the Lost Ark | special makeup effects: ILM |
| 1981 | Caveman | creator: abominable snowman |
| 1981 | Scanners | special makeup effects |
| 1980 | Galaxina | special makeup effects |
| 1979 | Something Waits in the Dark (later known as Screamers) | special makeup effects, U.S. filmed additions to L'isola degli uomini pesce |
| 2002 | Dark Heaven | visual effects |
| 1992 | The Vagrant |
| 1990 | Tales from the Crypt : "'Til Death" |
| 1989 | The Fly II |
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 12th Saturn Awards | Best Special Effects | Gremlins | Won |
| 1986 | 13th Saturn Awards | Best Make-up | Enemy Mine | Nominated |
| 1987 | 59th Academy Awards | Best Makeup | The Fly | Won |
| 14th Saturn Awards | Best Make-up | Won | ||
| 1988 | 41st British Academy Film Awards | Best Make-up Artist | Nominated | |
| Best Special Effects | Nominated | |||
| 1993 | 2nd Fangoria Chainsaw Awards | Best Makeup Effects | Naked Lunch | Nominated |
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones, a globetrotting archaeologist vying with Nazi German forces to recover the long-lost Ark of the Covenant which is said to make an army invincible. Teaming up with his tough former romantic interest Marion Ravenwood, Jones races to stop rival archaeologist René Belloq from guiding the Nazis to the Ark and its power.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a 1984 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from a script by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, based on a story by George Lucas. It is the second installment in the Indiana Jones film series and a prequel to Raiders of the Lost Ark. The film stars Harrison Ford, who reprises his role as the title character. Kate Capshaw, Amrish Puri, Roshan Seth, Philip Stone, and Ke Huy Quan, in his film debut, star in supporting roles. In the film, after arriving in British India, Indiana Jones is asked by desperate villagers to find a mystical stone and rescue their children from a Thuggee cult practicing child slavery, black magic, and ritual human sacrifice in honor of the goddess Kali.
The Fly is a 1986 American science fiction horror film directed and co-written by David Cronenberg. Produced by Brooksfilms and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, and John Getz. Loosely based on George Langelaan's 1957 short story of the same name and the 1958 film of the same name, The Fly tells of an eccentric scientist who, after one of his experiments goes wrong, slowly turns into a fly-hybrid creature. The score was composed by Howard Shore and the make-up effects were created by Chris Walas, along with makeup artist Stephan Dupuis.
Benjamin Burtt Jr. is an American sound designer, film director, film editor, screenwriter, and voice actor. As a sound designer, his credits include the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film series, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), WALL-E (2008), and Star Trek (2009).
Dennis Muren, A.S.C is an American film visual effects artist and supervisor. He has worked on the films of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron, among others, and has won nine Oscars in total: eight for Best Visual Effects and a Technical Achievement Academy Award. The Visual Effects Society has called him "a perpetual student, teacher, innovator, and mentor."
Robin R. Bottin is an American special make-up effects creator. Known for his collaborations with directors John Carpenter, Paul Verhoeven and David Fincher, Bottin worked with Carpenter on both The Fog and The Thing, with Verhoeven on RoboCop, Total Recall and Basic Instinct, and with Fincher on Se7en and Fight Club. His many other film credits include The Howling, Legend, Innerspace and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Richard Edlund, ASC is an American visual effects artist and inventor. He was a founding member of Industrial Light & Magic, having already founded Pignose amplifiers, and later co-founded Boss Film Studios and DuMonde VFX. He has won four Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, as well as two Special Achievement Awards, two Scientific and Technical Awards, and the Medal of Commendation. He is also a BAFTA and Emmy Award recipient.
Joseph Eggleston Johnston II is an American film director, producer, writer, and visual effects artist. He is best known for directing effects-driven films, including Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Jumanji (1995), Jurassic Park III (2001), The Wolfman (2010), and Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
Richard Alan Baker, known professionally as Rick Baker, is a retired American 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.
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.
Craig Barron is an American visual effects artist and creative director at Magnopus, a media company that produces visual development and virtual production services for motion pictures, television, museums and multimedia platforms.
Leslie Dilley is a Welsh art director and production designer. During his film career from the 1970s to 2000s, he won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction twice for Star Wars (1977) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Dilley received additional Best Art Direction nominations for Alien (1979), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and The Abyss (1989). Apart from art direction, Dilley was a production designer for The Exorcist III (1990), Casper (1995), and Son of the Mask (2005).
Michael Pangrazio is an American art director in the feature film industry best known for his matte painting work on Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Empire Strikes Back. As traditional and digital matte artist, he created some of the most famous matte paintings in movie history. His best known painting is the Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse interior set-extension at the end of the movie.
Bruce Nicholson is a special effects artist who received the Special Achievement Academy Award in 1980 for the visual effects of the film The Empire Strikes Back, which he shared with Brian Johnson, Richard Edlund and Dennis Muren. He won his first competitive Oscar for Raiders of the Lost Ark at the 1981 in the category of Best Visual Effects, where he shared his award with Richard Edlund, Kit West and Joe Johnston. He got one more Oscar nomination, for the 1982 for the film Poltergeist, which lost to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Kit West was a British special effects artist who was most known for his work in Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi and Dune.
Bill Warrington was a special effects artist. He won one Academy Award, which was for the film The Guns of Navarone. He shared his win with Chris Greenham, this was in the category of Best Special Effects during the 34th Academy Awards.
Lorne Peterson is a Canadian special effects artist most known for the Indiana Jones and Star Wars films.
David Berry is a special effects artist who won at the 58th Academy Awards in the category for Best Visual Effects for his work on the film Cocoon. His win was shared with Scott Farrar, Ralph McQuarrie and Ken Ralston.
The film series of The Fly is a sequence of science fiction-horror films, consisting of an original series started in 1958 and a remake series made in the 1980s. The first film of the series, The Fly, was produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox in 1958 as a colour film. The two following black and white sequels, Return of the Fly and Curse of the Fly, both produced by Associated Producers, were released in 1959 and 1965 respectively. The original film was remade in 1986, The Fly directed by David Cronenberg. The remake film received the Academy Award for Best Makeup in 1987. Its sequel, The Fly II, was released in 1989. All five films within the series were distributed by 20th Century Fox.
Neil Joseph Krepela is an American special effects artist and cinematographer.
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