Douglas Trumbull, special effects wizard for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, dies at 79
Douglas Trumbull, special effects wizard on Star Trek: The Motion Picture Image: Den of Geek
FEBRUARY 8, 2022 - He directed Natalie Wood in her last film, worked with Stanley Kubrick, and he was the son of the Academy Award winner and special effects rigger behind the flying monkeys and the Cowardly Lion’s tail in The Wizard of Oz. Star Trek fans will appreciate him for his visual effects work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The man who the Science Fiction Hall of Fame called an innovative master of special effects, Douglas Trumbull, died on Monday, February 7, at the age of 79.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Trumbull was a Los Angeles native and grew up enjoying science fiction movies and building crystal-set radios. He would go on to do visual effects work for multiple projects, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Bladerunner, and The Andromeda Strain, directed by Robert Wise. Trumbull directed, among other films, Brainstorm, Natalie Wood’s final picture.
It was Wise who brought Trumbull in to take over special effects work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture. From the THR obituary:
Trumbull agreed to take on the tight deadline — six months to complete more composites than Star Wars and Close Encounters combined — in exchange for a considerable fee and release from his Paramount contract. Three crews worked across 24-hour periods, seven days a week, to beat the deadline.
Wise allowed Trumbull to re-conceive and direct the film’s most celebrated sequence, the shuttle pod circling the majestic Enterprise before docking. It contains no dialogue, a decision Trumbull credits from working with Kubrick, who taught him to ‘stop talking for a while and let it all flow.’
Trumbull also helmed Spock’s spacewalk, which clearly borrowed from his 2001 Star Gate sequence. ‘I thought it would be fun to just get kind of abstract and make it a fantasy dream sequence in a way, not literal,’ he said.
Star Trek designer Michael Okuda expressed on his Facebook page that he was “shattered” to learn of the death of Trumbull and that he “was an artist and an innovator and a personal hero.”
Among other honors, Trumbull was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, in 2010, and he received three Academy Award nominations, including one for his work on The Motion Picture.
For much more on the life and work of Douglas Trumbull, see the full obituary at The Hollywood Reporter.
Please join all of us at Daily Star Trek News in sending our condolences to the family and friends of Douglas Hunt Trumbull.
David is a contributing writer for Daily Star Trek News on the Roddenberry Podcast Network. He is a librarian, baseball fan, and book and movie buff. He has also written for American Libraries and Skeptical Inquirer. David also enjoys diverse music, but leans toward classical and jazz. He plays a mean radio.
