Douglas Trumbull dies: VFX icon for Blade Runner and Star Trek was 79

The legendary special effects wizard, Douglas Trumbull, has passed away at age 79. Trumbull helped create some of Hollywood’s most iconic worlds, including landscapes for films like 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. His death was confirmed via social media by his daughter Amy Trumbull.

Among his many achievements, Trumbull developed the slit-scan photography process that was used in the “Star Gate” sequence of Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi classic. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” he later said. “We were struggling with the Star Gate. Nobody knew what a Star Gate was, but I came up with some ideas that I didn’t even know at the time were based on some things I was learning as a young guy about street photography and weird photographic techniques.”

Hailed as someone capable of pushing the effects industry forward in new and exciting ways, Trumbull was George Lucas’ first choice to head Industrial Light & Magic, but he was already hard at work on Spielberg’s Close Encounters. Trumbull passed on the opportunity but recommended his assistant John Dykstra for the golden gig.

Trumbull was nominated at the Oscars for his contributions to Close Encounters, Star Trek, and Blade Runner. He was also awarded two honorary prizes by the Academy. The first was a shared Scientific and Engineering Oscar for his work on the CP-65 Showscan Camera System. The second was the Gordon E. Sawyer Award which recognizes “an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry.”

In addition to his VFX work, Trumbull was also a director. Aside from a handful of shorts, he also helmed Silent Running (1972), Brainstorm (1983), and Luxor Live (1993).

We here at JoBlo would like to extend our sincere condolences to Mr. Trumbull’s family, friends, and fans. His work will live on for generations to come, and we appreciate his creativity and vision so much. Rest well, sir.