Carlo Rambaldi
Italian special effects artist (1925–2012)
Who was Carlo Rambaldi?
Carlo Rambaldi lived from September 15, 1925 to August 10, 2012. Carlo Rambaldi was born September 15, 1925, in Vigarano Mainarda, Emilia-Romagna. Carlo Rambaldi (September 15, 1925 – August 10, 2012) was an Italian special effects and makeup effects artist. He studied painting at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, where he developed a passion for electromechanics and the skeleton and musculature of the human body. He was heavily influenced by the work of Picasso and the Italian artist Renato Guttuso.
Historical significance
He was the winner of three Academy Awards: one Special Achievement Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1977 for the 1976 version of King Kong and two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects in 1980 and 1983 for, respectively, Alien (1979) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). He is most famous for his work in those two last mentioned films, that is for the mechanical head-effects for the creature in Alien and the design of the title character of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. In 2017, he was inducted into the Visual Effects Society Hall of Fame. Rambaldi's first work in film was creating a fire-breathing dragon for the 1957 Italian picture Sigfrido (titled in the English version as The Dragon's Blood).