Dennis Muren has worked on the films of George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron, among others, and has won nine Oscars in total: eight for Best Visual Effects and a Technical Achievement Academy Award.
17 Facts About Dennis Muren
2.
Dennis Muren was born in 1946 in Glendale, California, the son of Charline Louise and Elmer Ernest Dennis Muren.
3.
Dennis Muren quickly deepened his interest in effects by studying the films of John Fulton, Ray Harryhausen, and Howard Lydecker.
4.
Dennis Muren was fascinated by what he observed around him, in appearance and purpose, which led him to study the artwork of John Singer Sargent and Frank Frazetta.
5.
Dennis Muren never attended film school but was self-taught, and learned through friendships with other young Los Angeles effects enthusiasts, including Jim Danforth and David Allen.
6.
In 1965, after graduating from John Muir High School in Pasadena, California, and during a summer vacation at Pasadena City College as a business major, Dennis Muren raised $6,500 to make The Equinox, a 71-minute supernatural film incorporating the visual effects techniques he had grown up admiring.
7.
Dennis Muren sold it to producer Jack Harris who hired film editor Jack Woods to write and direct additional footage that added a demonic villain and made the film 82 minutes long.
8.
When Equinox was released in May 1970, Dennis Muren was credited as a producer despite having directed much of the film and created the special effects.
9.
Dennis Muren was hired as effects director of photography with a focus on the techniques and photography of miniatures on Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.
10.
When Lucas started the Lucasfilm Computer Graphic Group in 1979, Dennis Muren hoped to use their technology to make better, original movie images.
11.
The Graphics Group was sold in 1986, and Lucas started the ILM Computer Graphics Division with Dennis Muren helping voice ILM's needs for the digital image to mimic film qualities from lenses to film stocks, with user-friendly tools to mirror what humans see.
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Dennis Muren has said that his years spent observing and building an understanding of the physical world were invaluable to making virtual realities.
13.
Dennis Muren is married to British documentary filmmaker and landscape architect Zara Dennis Muren, who produced and directed Dream of The Sea Ranch and The Landscape Architecture of Roberto Burle Marx.
14.
In June 1999, Dennis Muren was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the first visual effects artist to be so recognized.
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Dennis Muren is a recipient of nine Oscars for Best Visual Effects and a Technical Achievement Academy Award, the most of any living person.
16.
Dennis Muren has a small, non-speaking role in Raiders of the Lost Ark; he appeared as a Nazi spy who peers over a magazine as Indiana Jones boards a passenger plane.
17.
Dennis Muren had a cameo in the theme-park attraction Star Tours.