1. John Stears was an English special effects artist.
14 Facts About John Stears
1. 2.
John Stears studied at Harrow College of Art and Southall Technical School before working as a draughtsman with the Air Ministry.
3.
John Stears served as a dispatch rider during his National Service, then joined a firm of architects where he was able to utilise his passion for model-making by constructing scale models of building projects for clients.
4.
John Stears' effects featured in the first eight James Bond films, winning an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1965 for Thunderball, and sharing another Academy Award in 1977 for Star Wars.
5.
John Stears created some of the most famous scenes in the movies.
6.
John Stears blew up the villain's Jamaican hideout at the end of Dr No, and for Goldfinger, he created Agent 007's Aston Martin DB5, featuring bullet-proof windows, revolving licence plates, forward-firing machine guns, a rear oil-slick dispenser and a passenger-side ejector seat.
7.
John Stears created an avalanche for On Her Majesty's Secret Service and built flying cars for the musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun.
8.
John Stears grew disenchanted with the Bond franchise, and vowed never to do another one.
9.
John Stears expressed great regret that Kevin McClory could not get his rival Bond film, Warhead, into production, as John Stears wanted to work on that film.
10.
In 1976, John Stears received a telephone call from George Lucas, who had been a great admirer of the Bond films, who wanted to know if he was interested in creating mechanical and electrical effects for a film that he had written, Star Wars.
11.
For Star Wars, John Stears created the robots R2-D2 and C-3PO, Luke Skywalker's Landspeeder, the special effects for the Jedi Knights' lightsabers - the first lightsaber hilt props having been created for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope by Roger Christian -, and the Death Star.
12.
John Stears is notably one of only a few people to ever win an Academy Award for a James Bond film and one of only eight to win an Academy Award for a Star Wars film.
13.
John Stears died on 28 April 1999 in UCLA Medical Center after a stroke.
14.
John Stears owned homes in Pacific Palisades and in Beaconsfield, England, where he and his wife raised cattle and show dogs.