Donald Edmund Trumbull (May 27, 1909 – June 7, 2004) was an American pioneer in the field of
motion picture
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...
special effects
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual w ...
.
Life
Trumbull was born in
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. He was the father of
Douglas Trumbull
Douglas Hunt Trumbull (; April 8, 1942 – February 7, 2022) was an American film director and innovative visual effects supervisor. He pioneered methods in special effects and created scenes for '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Close Encounters ...
, with whom he worked on several of these film projects.
Trumbull died of natural causes at the age of 95 at his daughter's home in
Graeagle, California
Graeagle is a town and census-designated place in eastern Plumas County, California, United States, located along the Middle Fork Feather River in the Northern Sierra Nevada. The population was 737 as of 2010.
History
The town was founded in ...
.
Films worked on
* ''
The Wizard of Oz
''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' or ''The Wizard of Oz'' most commonly refers to:
*'' The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'', a 1900 American novel by L. Frank Baum often reprinted as ''The Wizard of Oz''
** Wizard of Oz (character), from the Baum novel serie ...
'' (1939)
* ''
Silent Running
''Silent Running'' is a 1972 American environmental-themed post-apocalyptic science fiction film. It is the directorial debut of Douglas Trumbull, and stars Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts, Ron Rifkin, and Jesse Vint.
Plot
In the future, all plant l ...
'' (1972)
* ''
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...
'' (1977)
* ''
Spaceballs
''Spaceballs'' is a 1987 American space opera parody film co-written, produced and directed by Mel Brooks. It is primarily a parody of the original ''Star Wars'' trilogy, but also parodies other sci-fi films and popular franchises including ...
'' (1987)
External links
*
Obituary of Donald Trumbull''(
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
)''
Variety Obituary
1909 births
2004 deaths
People from Chicago
Special effects people
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