Oscar winner, Italian special-effects maestro Carlo Rambaldi, famous for creating the title character in the film E.T., died last Friday at the age of 86 in Lamezia Terme, Calabria, where he lived. After a long successful career in America, he had moved back to Lamezia Terme 10 years ago as he always felt a strong bond with his homeland.
During his amazing career, he created special effects for some 32 pictures, including classics like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Dune. His work was so realistic that in 1971 he had to prove that a dog mutilation scene in the movie A Lizard in Woman's Skin was not real after film's director Lucio Fulci was prosecuted for animal cruelty. Fulci got off without serving any time after Rambaldi offered up enough evidence to show that no real animal was used in making the movie.
Rambaldi studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, where he developed his passion for electromechanics and the anatomy of the human skeleton and musculature, and won substantial acclaim for his early art work. But in 1963 he entered the world of Italian cinema as a special effects artist and subsequently worked for many top Italian directors including Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mario Monicelli and Dario Argento.
In 1976 he became involved with the construction of Dino De Laurentis' King Kong which opened the door to a very successful career in the USA, where he moved in 1977.
During the latest period of his career, he often complained that computers had taken the magic out of his craft.
Rambaldi won three Oscars, including a Special Achievement Award, for his work on King Kong, Alien and E.T.
