Carlo Rambaldi

Carlo Rambaldi (September 15, 1925 – August 10, 2012) was an Italian special effects and makeup effects artist. 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 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.

Early life Carlo Rambaldi was born September 15, 1925, in Vigarano Mainarda, Emilia-Romagna. 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.

Career Rambaldi's first work in film was creating a fire-breathing dragon for the 1957 Italian picture Sigfrido

Rambaldi's last screen credit was on the 1988 horror film Primal Rage, directed by his son Vittorio. When computer-generated special effects became common place, Rambaldi complained, "Any kid with a computer can reproduce the special effects seen in today’s movies. The mystery's gone. The curiosity that viewers once felt when they saw special effects has disappeared. It's as if a magician had revealed all of his tricks... There’s no question that these computer films are well packaged but the charm has disappeared... If Spielberg were to film E.T. today using the latest technology I'm not sure it would be a hit because the techniques they’re using at the moment couldn't reproduce the tender expression of ET's eyes, for example. The secret of creating what technology is unable to express lies in the work of the artisan, who is able to develop characteristics that touch our deepest emotions."

Rambaldi died after a long illness on August 10, 2012, in Lamezia Terme, Calabria, where he had lived for the last decade of his life,

His ashes were laid to rest in the family tomb in Vigarano Mainarda, near his son Alessandro.

1975

1976 Kong design and engineering

Consultant on buffalo sequences

Realization of "extraterrestrial"

'Alien' head effect

Special visual effects

1981 Special visual effects

1981

1982 Creator of E.T.

Creator of Dagoth

Creature creator

Creature creator

Creature creator

Academy Awards One Special Achievement Academy Award 1977 (49th): for Best Visual Effects for King Kong (1976), shared with Glen Robinson and Frank Van der Veer

Two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects 1980 (52nd): for Best Visual Effects for Alien (1979), shared with H. R. Giger, Brian Johnson, Nick Allder, and Dennis Ayling 1983 (55th): for Best Visual Effects for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), shared with Dennis Muren and Kenneth F. Smith

Other awards Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards 1982: Special Award, "for the body of his work"

Saturn Awards 1983: for Best Special Effects for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), shared with Dennis Muren

MystFest Awards 1985: Special Award, "for his whole activities"

Los Angeles Italian Film Awards 2000: Outstanding Achievement Award for Best Special Effects

David di Donatello Awards 2002: Special David Award