Richard Edlund

{{Infobox person

| name = Richard Edlund

| image = Richard Edlund 1 (2).jpg

| caption = Edlund at an exhibition of his photographs in 2008

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1940|12|6}}

| birth_place = Fargo, North Dakota, U.S.

| death_date =

| death_place =

| othername =

| alma_mater = USC School of Cinematic Arts

| occupation = Visual effects artist

| yearsactive =

| organization = {{ubl|

}}

| known_for = Co-founding ILM and Boss Film Studios; pioneering opticals & motion control photography

| notable_works = {{ubl|

}}

| title =

| spouse = Rita Kogan (m. 1993; died 2019)

| domesticpartner =

| website = {{url|https://www.richardedlund.com/}}

| awards = See awards

}}

Richard Edlund, {{small|ASC}} (born December 6, 1940) is an American visual effects artist and inventor. He was a founding member of Industrial Light & Magic, having already founded Pignose amplifiers, and later co-founded Boss Film Studios and DuMonde VFX. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects (1978, Star Wars; 1982, Raiders of the Lost Ark), as well as two Special Achievement Awards, two Scientific and Technical Awards, and the Medal of Commendation. He is also a BAFTA and Emmy Award recipient.

Life and career

File:RIT yearbook 1978 page 74 (cropped).jpg

Edlund was born in Fargo, North Dakota and raised in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. After first joining the United States Navy, he developed an interest in experimental film and attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts in the late 1960s. On the strength of a couple of short films, he was picked by John Dykstra to work as first cameraman at the embryonic Industrial Light & Magic on the production on Star Wars for which he shared an Academy Award.

Edlund continued to work with Dykstra on Battlestar Galactica but was invited back by George Lucas to work on The Empire Strikes Back. Edlund's considerable technical challenge on this film was to optically composite miniatures against a white background resulting in a second Academy Award. Edlund also did distinguished work for Lucas and ILM on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist.

In 1983, following the completion of Return of the Jedi, Edlund set up his own effects company, Boss Films, whose credits include Ghostbusters, Big Trouble in Little China, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Cliffhanger, Outbreak and Air Force One. Boss Film Studios was one of the first traditional effects houses that successfully transitioned from "tangible world" visual effects, to computer generated imagery, with many notable CGI artists beginning their careers at Boss.

Aside from film-work, Edlund also developed and manufactured the Pignose portable-style guitar amplifier (co-designed by Wayne Kimball).{{Cite web |title=Pignose History |url=http://pignoseamps.com/pages/pignose-history |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20161105173158/http://pignoseamps.com/pages/pignose-history |archive-date=2016-11-05 |access-date=2025-04-28 |website=Pignose Amps |language=en}} He is a Governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a founder of the Academy's visual effects branch and is chair of the Branch Executive Committee, also chairman of the Academy’s Science and Technology Council. He also serves as board member of the Visual Effects Society and on the board of directors of the American Society of Cinematographers.{{Cite web |title=Richard Edlund, ASC - About |url=https://www.richardedlund.com/about.html |access-date=May 25, 2022 |website=www.richardedlund.com}}

Edlund was married to Rita Kogan, the only daughter of entrepreneur Michael Kogan,{{cite web |date=April 22, 1993 |title=Thanks a Million, DARE Donors |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-22-vw-25618-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123024625/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-04-22-vw-25618-story.html |archive-date=January 23, 2021 |access-date=November 20, 2016 |work=Los Angeles Times}} before her death in 2019.{{cite web |date=July 5, 2019 |title=Estate of Late Space Invaders Heiress Lists Three Brentwood Ranches |url=https://variety.com/2019/dirt/real-estate/rita-kogan-house-brentwood-1203259771/ |url-status=deviated |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190706045623/https://variety.com/2019/dirt/real-estate/rita-kogan-house-brentwood-1203259771/ |archive-date=July 6, 2019 |access-date=December 4, 2019 |publisher=Variety}}

Filmography

= Film =

class="wikitable"

!Year

!Title

!Contribution

!Director

!Notes

1964

|The Creeping Terror

|Opening & closing titles designer

|Vic Savage

|Uncredited

1977

|Star Wars

|Director of photography: VFX unit

|George Lucas

|Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

1979

|The China Syndrome

| rowspan="7" |VFX supervisor

|James Bridges

1980

|The Empire Strikes Back

|Irvin Kershner

|Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

1981

|Raiders of the Lost Ark

|Steven Spielberg

|Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

1982

|Poltergeist

|Tobe Hooper

|BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects
Nominated- Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

1983

|Return of the Jedi

|Richard Marquand

|BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects

rowspan="2" |1984

|Ghostbusters

|Ivan Reitman

|Nominated- Academy Award for Best Visual Effects
Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects

2010: The Year We Make Contact

|Peter Hyams

|Nominated- Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

1985

|Fright Night

|VFX producer

|Tom Holland (filmmaker)

rowspan="5" |1986

|Poltergeist II: The Other Side

| rowspan="2" |VFX supervisor

|Brian Gibson

|Nominated- Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

Legal Eagles

|Ivan Reitman

Big Trouble in Little China

| rowspan="2" |VFX producer

|John Carpenter

Solarbabies

|Alan Johnson

The Boy Who Could Fly

| rowspan="3" |VFX supervisor

|Nick Castle

rowspan="4" |1987

|Masters of the Universe

|Gary Goddard

The Monster Squad

|Fred Dekker

Date with an Angel

| rowspan="5" |VFX producer

|Tom McLoughlin

Leonard Part 6

|Paul Weiland

rowspan="3" |1988

|Die Hard

|John McTiernan

|Nominated- Academy Award for Best Visual Effects

Big Top Pee-wee

|Randal Kleiser

Vibes

|Ken Kwapis

1989

|Farewell to the King

|Director of photography: VFX unit

rowspan="2" |1990

|VFX supervisor

|Producer

1992

|Alien 3

|VFX producer

|David Fincher

|Nominated- Academy Award for Best Visual Effects
Nominated- BAFTA Award for Best Special Visual Effects

1995

|Species

| rowspan="5" |VFX supervisor

1996

rowspan="2" |1997

1998

|Desperate Measures

|Barbet Schroeder

2000

|Bedazzled

|VFX supervisor/2nd unit director

|Harold Ramis

2004

|The Stepford Wives

|VFX consultant

|Frank Oz

rowspan="2" |2007

|Anamorph

| rowspan="5" |VFX supervisor

|Henry S. Miller

Charlie Wilson's War

|Mike Nichols

rowspan="2" |2012

|21 Jump Street

|Phil Lord
Christopher Miller

Bullet to the Head

|Walter Hill

2015

|Barely Lethal

|Kyle Newman

= Television =

class="wikitable"

!Year

!Title

!Contribution

!Notes

1967

|Star Trek

|'The Companion' design

|Episode: "Metamorphosis"

1978

|Battlestar Galactica

|Director of photography: VFX unit

|Episodes: "Saga of a Star World Parts 1, 2, 3"
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement - Creative Technical Crafts

1988

|The Magical World of Disney

|VFX producer

|Episode: "Earth Star Voyager: Part 1"

1989-95

|Tales from the Crypt

|Producer

|5 episodes:

"The Man Who Was Death"
"What's Cookin'"
"The Pit"
"The Assassin"
"You Murderer"

2003

|Angels in America

|VFX supervisor

|Miniseries; 4 episodes
Nominated- Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special

Awards and honors

class="wikitable"

!Institution

!Category

!Year

!Work

!Result

rowspan="13" |Academy Award

|Best Visual Effects

|1978

|Star Wars

|{{won}}

Special Achievement Award

|1981

|The Empire Strikes Back

|{{won}}

Scientific and Technical Award

| rowspan="2" |1982

|The Empire Strikes Back{{efn|for "the Empire Motion Picture Camera System" and "the concept and engineering of a beam-splitter optical composite motion picture printer."}}

|{{won}}

rowspan="2" |Best Visual Effects

|Raiders of the Lost Ark

|{{won}}

1983

|Poltergeist

|{{nom}}

Special Achievement Award

|1984

|Return of the Jedi

|{{won}}

rowspan="3" |Best Visual Effects