John Stears

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John Stears

John Stears (born August 25, 1934 in Uxbridge , England , † June 28, 1999 in Los Angeles , California , USA ) was a British film technician who specialized in visual effects and special effects .

Life

Stears attended Swakelys Secondary Modern School in Ickenham from 1945 to 1949 . He then studied art at Harrow School and engineering at a school in Southall . At the beginning of his career, Stears worked on several James Bond films, in which he was usually always surrounded by the same team, for example Ben Snow as an engineer and for the effects on the ground. Stears also claimed that he was unaware of his Oscar nomination for Fireball . He allegedly first found out about it from a friend in the United States . Stears was the creator of many now world-famous film objects, such as the Aston Martin DB 5 for the Bond films, the lightsabers from Star Wars , Luke Skywalker's Speeder, the Death Star, as well as the C3PO and R2-D2 robots .
He liked to build gigantic model airplanes and also flew with them.
Stears died of a sudden brain hemorrhage on June 28, 1999, the birthday of his wife Brenda . He left two daughters: Janet, who now works as a special effects technician, production manager, writer and producer, and Jacqueline, who works at Disney . He was also the brother of Andy Stears , who is also active as a sound engineer in the film industry.

Filmography (selection)

Special effects:

Visual effects:

Awards

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stears, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British film technician
DATE OF BIRTH August 25, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Uxbridge , Hillingdon , Middlesex , England
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1999
Place of death Los Angeles , California , USA