“Forgotten Hollywood”- Special Effects Wizard…
Manny P. here…
“`Douglas Trumbell was a film director and special effects magician. He was the son of Donald Trumbull, who created the visual look for The Wizard of Oz. He created special photographic effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Tree of Life, and also directed Silent Running and Brainstorm.
“`Douglas Trumbull’s began his career at Graphic Films in Los Angeles. The small animation and graphic arts studio produced To the Moon and Beyond for the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The spaceflight film caught the attention of director Stanley Kubrick.
“`Author Michael Crichton and director Robert Wise were very impressed by Trumbull’s efforts on The Andromeda Strain. His success on Andromeda set him up to direct Silent Running. Its environmental message struck a chord and the movie has become a cult classic. Trumbull also had uncredited work using blue screen techniques on The Towering Inferno.
DOUGLAS TRUMBULL (Star Trek: The Motion Picture & Blade Runner)
“`In 1975, Trumbull turned down an offer to provide the effects for George Lucas’ Star Wars due to other commitments, but he later contributed to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Blade Runner followed. After his work on Brainstorm and the death of its star, Natalie Wood, Trumbull left Hollywood.
“`One of his post-cinematic work was Back to the Future Ride at Universal Studios Theme Park. Trumbull’s Showscan technology could be seen on a theme-park type ride at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas. After three decades away from Hollywood, he returned to special effects work on Terrence Malick’s 2011 film The Tree of Life.
“`Trumbull was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010. He received Academy Awards nods on three occasions and received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award in February 2012, an honorary Oscar given to:
An individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry.
“`He was given the American Society of Cinematographer’s Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Georges Méliès Award from the Visual Effects Society.
“`Douglas Trumbull was seventy-nine.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 9th, 2022 at 1:24 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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