Brian Johnson (special effects artist)

Brian Johnson
Born	Brian Johncock 1939 (age 76–77) Sunbury-On-Thames
Nationality	British
Occupation	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 1939) is a British designer and director of film and television special effects.

Life and career

Born Brian Johncock,^[1] he changed his surname to Johnson during the 1960s.^[1] 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),^[2] 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.^[3]

Johnson's work on Space: 1999 influenced the effects of the Star Wars films of the 1970s and 1980s.^[4] 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.^[5] He did, however, work 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).

Awards

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 the 1986 sequel to Alien, Aliens).

Filmography

Special effects

Quatermass 2 (1957) (special effects assistant, uncredited)
The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) (special effects assistant, uncredited)
Thunderbirds (TV series) (1965–66)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (special effects assistant, uncredited)
Moon Zero Two (1969) (special effects assistant, uncredited)
Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) (special effects) (as Brian Johncock)
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970) (special effects) (as Brian Johncock)
A Clockwork Orange (1971) (special effects assistant, uncredited)
Space: 1999 (TV series) (special effects—24 episodes, 1975–76; special effects director—24 episodes, 1976–78; special effects designer—18 episodes, 1976–78; special effect designer—6 episodes, 1976)
The Day After Tomorrow (TV pilot) (1975) (special effects designer)
The Medusa Touch (1978) (special effects supervisor)
Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) (special effects)
Alien (1979) (special effects supervisor)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980) (special effects supervisor)
Dragonslayer (1981) (supervisor of special mechanical effects)
The Pirates of Penzance (1983) (special effects supervisor)
The NeverEnding Story (1984) (director of special effects)
Spies Like Us (1985) (special effects supervisor)
Aliens (1986) (special effects)
Slipstream (1989) (special effects)
Dragonheart (1996) (micro-light coordinator)
Space Truckers (1996) (special effects supervisor)
Dream Street (1999) (director)

Director

Scragg 'n' Bones (2006)

References

1 2 Archer, Simon; Hearn, Marcus (2002). What Made Thunderbirds Go! The Authorised Biography of Gerry Anderson. London: BBC Books. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-563-53481-5.
↑ "Bring on the Gore: Top Ten Practical Effects in Horror!". BloodyDisgusting.
↑ Drake, Chris: UFO and Space: 1999. Boxtree. p. 58.
↑ The Catacombs—Brian Johnson. space1999.net.
↑ Brian Johnson Interview, 1979. space1999.net.

External links

Brian Johnson at the Internet Movie Database

Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

1963-1980	Emil Kosa, Jr. (1963) Peter Ellenshaw, Eustace Lycett, and Hamilton Luske (1964) John Stears (1965) Art Cruickshank (1966) L. B. Abbott (1967) Stanley Kubrick (1968) Robbie Robertson (1969) L. B. Abbott and A. D. Flowers (1970) Alan Maley, Eustace Lycett, Danny Lee (1971) L. B. Abbott and A. D. Flowers (1972) no award given (1973) Frank Brendel, Glen Robinson, and Albert Whitlock (1974) Glen Robinson and Albert Whitlock (1975) Carlo Rambaldi, Glen Robinson, and Frank Van der Veer (1976) John Stears, John Dykstra, Richard Edlund, Grant McCune, and Robert Blalack (1977) Les Bowie, Colin Chilvers, Denys Coop, Roy Field, Derek Meddings, and Zoran Perisic (1978) H. R. Giger, Carlo Rambaldi, Brian Johnson, Nick Allder, and Dennis Ayling (1979) Brian Johnson, Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Bruce Nicholson (1980)

1981-2000	Richard Edlund, Kit West, Bruce Nicholson, and Joe Johnston (1981) Carlo Rambaldi, Dennis Muren, and Kenneth F. Smith (1982) Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, Ken Ralston, and Phil Tippett (1983) Dennis Muren, Michael J. McAlister, Lorne Peterson, and George Gibbs (1984) Ken Ralston, Ralph McQuarrie, Scott Farrar, and David Berry (1985) Robert Skotak, Stan Winston, John Richardson, and Suzanne Benson (1986) Dennis Muren, William George, Harley Jessup, and Kenneth F. Smith (1987) Ken Ralston, Richard Williams, Edward Jones, and George Gibbs (1988) John Bruno, Dennis Muren, Hoyt Yeatman, and Dennis Skotak (1989) Eric Brevig, Rob Bottin, Tim McGovern, and Alex Funke (1990) Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Gene Warren, Jr., and Robert Skotak (1991) Ken Ralston, Doug Chiang, Doug Smythe, and Tom Woodruff, Jr. (1992) Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Phil Lippett, and Michael Lantieri (1993) Ken Ralston, George Murphy, Stephen Rosenbaum, and Allen Rall (1994) Scott E. Anderson, Charles Gibson, Neal Scanlan, and John Cox (1995) Volker Engel, Douglas Smith, Clay Pinney, and Joe Viskocil (1996) Robert Legato, Mark Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher, Michael Kanfer (1997) Joel Hynek, Nicholas Brooks, Stuart Robinson, and Kevin Mack (1998) John Gaeta, Janek Sirrs, Steve Courtley, and Jon Thum (1999) John Nelson, Neil Corbould, Tim Burke, and Rob Harvey (2000)

2001-2020	Jim Rygiel, Randall William Cook, Richard Taylor, Mark Stetson (2001) Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, and Alex Funke (2002) Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, and Alex Funke (2003) John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, and John Frazier (2004) Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, and Richard Taylor (2005) John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson, and Allen Hall (2006) Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris, and Trevor Wood (2007) Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, and Craig Barron (2008) Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew R. Jones (2009) Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, and Peter Bebb (2010) Robert Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossmann, and Alex Henning (2011) Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan de Boer, and Donald R. Elliott (2012) Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould (2013) Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, and Scott R. Fisher (2014) Mark Williams Ardington, Sara Bennett, Paul Norris, and Andrew Whitehurst (2015)

Space: 1999

Characters

Vehicles

Episodes

Series 1	"Breakaway" "Matter of Life and Death" "Black Sun" "Ring Around the Moon" "Earthbound" "Another Time, Another Place" "Missing Link" "Guardian of Piri" "Force of Life" "The Last Sunset" "Voyager's Return" "Collision Course" "The Full Circle" "War Games" "The Last Enemy" "The Troubled Spirit" "The Infernal Machine" "Mission of the Darians" "Dragon's Domain" "The Testament of Arkadia"

Series 2	"The Metamorph" "One Moment of Humanity" "All That Glisters" "Journey to Where" "The Taybor" "The Mark of Archanon" "Brian the Brain" "New Adam, New Eve" "Catacombs of the Moon" "The AB Chrysalis" "Seed of Destruction" "The Beta Cloud" "Space Warp" "The Bringers of Wonder": Part 1 / Part 2 "The Lambda Factor" "The Seance Spectre" "Devil's Planet" "The Dorcons"