Les Bowie
Les Bowie (November 10, 1913 – January 27, 1979[1]) was a special effects artist working mainly in Britain.
Bowie began his career as a matte painter in 1946.[2] His work found places in classic films such as Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and The Red Shoes.[3]
He created his own company in 1951 and worked freelance on projects for relatively low-budget studios such as Hammer Films and Oakmont Productions. His films for Hammer included The Quatermass Xperiment (1955), Dracula (1958), The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) and Kiss of the Vampire (1963). His Oakmont films were Attack on the Iron Coast, Submarine X-1 and Mosquito Squadron. Bowie worked with Ray Harryhausen on Jason and the Argonauts, First Men in the Moon, One Million Years B.C. and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.[4]
Notable non-Hammer films included The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), Fahrenheit 451 (1966) Casino Royale (1967) and The Assassination Bureau (1969).
He was also one of a team to win an Oscar for his work on the 1978 film Superman, specialising in mattes and composites.
Notes
- ↑Academy Awards Database: Les Bowie[link removed]
- ↑"Galeon - Popular Magazin 2021". Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
- ↑"Galeon - Popular Magazin 2021". Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
- ↑p.135 Webber, Roy P. The Dinosaur Films of Ray Harryhausen: Features, Early 16mm Experiments and Unrealized Projects McFarland, 2004
External links
- Canadian visual effects artists
- Artists from Vancouver
- 1913 births
- 1979 deaths
- Special Achievement Academy Award winners
- Matte painters
- Canadian emigrants to the United Kingdom
- BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award
- British film biography stubs
