The Washington Post is reporting that special effects designer Carlo Rambaldi passed away on August 10th at the age of 86 in his home in southern Italy.
Rambaldi was the genius behind the design and construction of E.T., King Kong, the xenomorphs from Alien, and many other movie monsters and aliens, many of which reside deeply within the minds of science fiction/fantasy fans.
Steven Spielberg, director of E.T., had this to say upon hearing the news. “Carlo Rambaldi was E.T.’s Geppetto. All of us who marveled and wondered at his craft and artistry are deeply saddened by the news of his passing.”
Watch this reel collecting his impressive onscreen work.
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RIP
In a space of five years, he helped design three iconic aliens, all different:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Aliens (the head, so detailed, it was filmed in close-up)
E.T.
Then there was the mask for “Danger: Diabolik” and the leather guards of “Barbarella”, and, in what might be the highest accolade, he had to testify in Italian court that the vivisectioned dogs in “A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin” were not real!
Wow, I didn’t know he designed Diabolik’s mask as well.