Carlo Rambaldi (September 15, 1925 - August 10, 2012) was an Academy Award-winning Italian visual effects artist.
Having already developed an interest in electromechanics and anatomy from his studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna, Rambaldi began his career in visual effects in 1957, creating a fire-breathing animatronic dragon for The Dragon's Blood, an Italian fantasy epic based on The Ring of the Nibelung. By 1963, Rambaldi would fully devote his career to the field, working with such esteemed directors as Mario Bava, Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Dario Argento. However, it would be his work on King Kong (1976) that would gain him international attention as well as his first Academy Award.
Over the next decade, Rambaldi would become the film industry's go-to guy if you needed someone to create strange, unearthly creatures. By far his most famous creations would be mechanical head effects for the Xenomorph in Alien and the animatronic puppet for the titular character in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, both of which earned him further Academy Awards. Rambaldi retired from the visual effects business in 1989, believing that advancements in CGI had rendered his work obsolete. His final assignment would be the 1988 production Primal Rage (no relation to the video game), directed by his son Vittorio.
Rambaldi was married to Bruna Basso, with whom he had three children. He died in 2012 following a long illness.
Some of Rambaldi's credits include:
- Dragon's Blood (1958)
- Perseo L'Invincibile (1963) — a Sword and Sandal movie, dubbed into English under the Market-Based Title Medusa Against the Son of Hercules
- Bloody Pit of Horror (1965)
- Danger: Diabolik (1968)
- Lady Frankenstein (1971)
- A Lizard in a Woman's Skin (1971) — caused a scandal when his realization of the vivisected dogs in one of the film's nightmare sequences proved so convincing that director Lucio Fulci was charged with animal cruelty, forcing Rambaldi to demonstrate the effects techniques he used to Fulci's prosecutor in order to prove that No Animals Were Harmed.
- A Bay of Blood (1972)
- Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)
- Blood for Dracula (1974)
- Deep Red (1975)
- King Kong (1976) — earned him his first Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, with Rick Baker.
- The White Buffalo (1977)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - Alien effects with Tom Burman and Bob Baker
- Alien (1979) — earned him his second Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
- The Hand (1981) — Worked on the hand effects with Stan Winston.
- Possession (1981)
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) — earned him his third Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
- Conan the Destroyer (1984)
- Dune (1984)
- Cat's Eye (1985)
- Silver Bullet (1985) — Assisted by Michael McCracken, Jr., and Ken Forsee and Alchemy II.
- King Kong Lives (1986)
- Cameron's Closet (1988)
