Eustace Lycett

Eustace Arden Lycett (born December 21, 1914 in Stoke-on-Trent , Staffordshire , † November 16, 2006 in Fullerton , California ) was an American special effects artist and two-time Oscar winner, who was one of the most famous Hollywood greats in his field. He began his career at Disney as an assistant to Ub Iwerks and later headed several departments of the film studio. For his work on the Multiplan camera , he was honored by AMPAS with the Technical Achievement Award in 1960 .

Life

Since his father was a mining engineer, the family had to move to Chile a few years after Lycett's birth, and later they returned to England to emigrate to California in 1929. There he studied mechanical engineering at Caltech in order to later work in aircraft construction or the oil industry.

That didn't work out as he was hired to join Disney's technical development department just three days after graduating. In fact, it should stay that way for the next 43 years. After working at Ub Iwerk 's side for a few years , he became head of the Special Processes Department after his departure in 1953 , and in 1958 he was also head of the Photographic Effects Department . From then on he worked intensively with the Matte Painter Peter Ellenshaw (1913-2007), with whom he and Hamilton Luske received the Oscar in the category "Best Visual Effects" for the musical fantasy film Mary Poppins (1964) in 1965 .

After the death of Walt Disney in December 1966, Peter Ellenshaw largely withdrew, leaving Lycett on his own, which came to a head with the death of Iwerks in 1971. Now he was finally the sole boss at Disney when it came to special and visual effects. In 1972 he received another Oscar for the fantasy comedy The daring witch in her flying bed . All in all, he was nominated four times for the coveted trophy, most recently in 1980 together with Peter Ellenshaw for the science fiction film The Black Hole . This makes Lycett the only double award winner at Disney who has worked for the studio for over 25 years without previously receiving the Disney Legends Award.

He retired in 1980. After 67 years of marriage, his wife died in 2004. Eustace Lycett died on November 16, 2006 in a Flintridge, California nursing home at the age of 91. The public only found out about Lycett's demise on March 14, 2007 through research by the industry journal Variety . Lycett left four sons as well as several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Web links

• Eustace Lycett in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Detailed article in Duckipedia (German)
• Dennis Hevesi: Eustace Lycett, 91, Designer of Special Effects for Disney Movies, Dies. , Obituary in the New York Times of March 17, 2007 (English)