Robert Blalack, Oscar-winning visual effects artist on Star Wars: A New Hope and co-founder of renowned studio Industrial Light & Magic, died from cancer last Wednesday, February 2 at his home in Paris at age 73. The news was shared with The Hollywood Reporter by Blalack’s wife, Caroline Charron-Blalack.
Blalack was born in Panama on Dec. 9, 1948, and was educated in London before attending college in California. He received a BA in English Lit and Theater Arts from Pomona College, during which time he began teach himself film through experimental works. He returned to school at CalArts for an MFA in Film Studios, where he co-directed The Words with professor Don Levy.
After graduating from CalArts in 1973, Blalack’s career got off to a strong start as he created the photograph animation for Peter Davis’ Oscar-winning documentary feature Hearts and Minds (1974). In 1975, while creating a promotional video for Douglas Trumbull’s effects studio Future General, he met John Dykstra — when the cameraman was tapped by George Lucas to supervise the VFX for Star Wars, Blalack was invited to help set up the film’s VistaVision VFX facility: Industrial Light & Magic. He won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1978 for his work on the iconic film.
Another of Blalack’s notable projects was the 1983 television movie event The Day After (1983), for which he and the Praxis Film Works team designed and produced the VFX that envisioned the effects of nuclear detonations, aftermath, radiation and ICBM contrails on the population of Lawrence, Kansas. More than 100 million people tuned into the premiere broadcast on ABC, scoring a 62% audience share and making it the highest-rated TV movie in history until 2009. Blalack won an Emmy Awards for his VFX work on The Day After Tomorrow in 1984.
Blalack also contributed to the visual spectacle of Carl Sagan’s 1980 series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, as well as ’80s big screen classics like Blues Brothers, Airplane!, Cat People and RoboCop. In the ’90s, he delivered MoCo miniature photography as well as live-action footage for theme park attractions including Seafari, Aliens: Ride at the Speed of Fright (LBE) and Akbar’s Adventure Tours (Busch).
