Academy Awards: Gordon E. Sawyer Award
The Gordon E. Sawyer Award is an Honorary Award given to "an individual in the motion picture industry whose technological contributions have brought credit to the industry." The award is named in honor of Gordon E. Sawyer, the former Sound Director at Samuel Goldwyn Studio and three-time Academy Award winner. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_E._Sawyer_Award
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- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Actor
Frank Capra's favorite cinematographer began his working life as an electrical engineer who collaborated with Lee De Forest on building the first wireless transmitter. However, it was his interest in moving picture photography which led him to work in film laboratories where his numerous pioneering inventions included the first lens adjustment mechanisms (zoom lenses), a camera and flash lamp synchronizing device, oblique image superimposition projection devices and a panoramic television camera. During World War I, Walker gained valuable hands-on experience filming aerial scenes, newsreels and other documentary footage, often for the Red Cross or Gaumont News. All the while, he continued to accumulate patents, such as the Double Exposure System and the Facial Make-Up Meter.
Once qualified as a lighting cameraman, Walker started to work in Hollywood. His first film, Back to God's Country (1919), was shot under difficult conditions near the Arctic Circle. After involvement in several low budget affairs as a free-lance cinematographer, he joined Columbia in 1927. Walker was to have a profound impact in elevating the status of this studio during the next two decades, inextricably linked with Columbia's best and commercially most successful films, until his retirement in 1952. He directed Capra's first for the studio, THAT CERTAIN THING (1928), as well as Columbia's first 'A' production, the action thriller Submarine (1928), a silent film with a music and sound effects track, which was also directed by Capra. Walker and Capra worked out a way to use miniature toys and a discarded aquarium found in the props department to conjure up 'special effects'. An artistic understanding developed between the two men, and, from Capra's picture Flight (1929), Walker worked on each of the director's films for the next decade, winning an Academy Award nomination for You Can't Take It with You (1938).
Not only an expert craftsman in composition, camera movement and perspective, as well as consummately skilled in the use of wide-angle and zoom lenses (of which he had a vast personal collection), Walker also excelled at lighting his sets. His most memorable scenes include the moonlit hay field of It Happened One Night (1934), the torchlit funeral procession of Lost Horizon (1937), and, of course, who could forget George Bailey running along the snow-covered main street of Bedford Falls in It's a Wonderful Life (1946) ? Known in the industry as a 'woman's photographer', Walker consistently captured the best attributes of his leading ladies through his close-ups, shot with his own patented 4-inch lenses. Though he worked primarily on black-and-white features, Joe Walker was equally adept at the medium of color and won his third of four Oscar nominations for Columbia's A-grade biopic, The Jolson Story (1946).
After his retirement, Walker's ever-active mind developed and manufactured the Electro-Zoom Lens for RCA (expanding on his earlier, basic design of 1932), later used as standard equipment by TV cameramen in the 1960s. In 1982, he became the inaugural recipient of the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, bestowed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for outstanding technological contributions to the industry. He detailed his memoirs two years later in his autobiography, entitled "The Light on Her Face".- Sound Department
- Music Department
John Aalberg was best friends with Ed Kappel in Chicago. They were both in the Projectionist Union, the rules back then only allowed brothers or sons to join, (William Leonard) was the brother of May (Leonard) Kappel, the wife of Ed, Bill changed his name to Kappel in order to get in the Union. Ed Kappel was offered a sound job in Los Angeles, which he turned down because he did not think he had the education to handle it. Since Aalberg was a graduate of Armour Tech in Chicago, Ed let Aalberg take the job. Because of this and his friendship with Ed and the difficult times in Chicago, Aaalberg hired Ed Leonard at Universal, then Ed asked Aalberg to hire Willie (Kappel) Leonard as things became bad in Chicago after the head of the union, Tommy Malloy was murdered, and that's how the, Leonard's, Henderson's and Murray's became successful in the industry. Bill Leonard worked at 20th Century as a Projectionist in 1939, when his daughter, Sheila Leonard married Robert Henderson, he got him in the Union and became a Sound Editor with two Academy Award nominations, when Bob Henderson's, daughter, Lynnell Henderson married Alan Murray, he got Alan a job as a Sound Editor who not only has been nominated 4 times for an Academy Award, he won for the Sound in Clint Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" Alan and Bob began working with Clint on the Movie "Escape From Alcatraz" Now all three of Lynnell and Alan's children work at Warner Bros.- Visual Effects
- Special Effects
- Camera and Electrical Department
Linwood G. Dunn was born on 27 December 1904 in New York City, New York, USA. He is known for West Side Story (1961), The Thing from Another World (1951) and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). He was married to Alice Dunn. He died on 15 May 1998 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Sound Department
Fred Hynes was born on 8 May 1908 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. He is known for The Sound of Music (1965), Cleopatra (1963) and Oklahoma! (1955). He was married to Donna Murphy. He died on 10 February 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Visual Effects
- Producer
- Animation Department
When it comes to motion-picture special effects, there is only one name that personifies movie magic: Ray Harryhausen. From his debut films with George Pal to his final film, Harryhausen imbued magic and visual strength to motion-picture special effects as no other technician has, before or since.
Born in Los Angeles, the signature event in Harryhausen's life was when he saw King Kong (1933). So awed was the 13-year-old Harryhausen that he began researching the film's effects work, ultimately learning all he could about Willis H. O'Brien and stop-motion photography--he even contacted O'Brien and showed an allosaur short he made, which caused O'Brien to quip to his wife, "You realize you're encouraging my competition, don't you?" Harryhausen tried to make a stop-motion epic titled "Evolution," but the time required to make it resulted in it being cut short. The footage he completed--of a lumbering apatosaurus attacked by a belligerent allosaurus--made excellent use as a demo reel, and as a result, Harryhausen's first film job came with George Pal, working on the Puppetoon shorts for Paramount. A stint in the army utilized Harryhausen's animation skills for training films.
After World War II, Harryhausen acquired over 1,000 feet of unused military film and made a series of Puppetoon-flavored fairy tale shorts, which helped him land a job with Willis H. O'Brien and Marcel Delgado on Mighty Joe Young (1949). Although O'Brien received credit for it, 85% of the actual animation was done by Harryhausen. His real breakthrough, however, came when he was hired to do the special effects for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953). The film's $200,000 budget meant that Harryhausen was forced to improvise to get the kinds of quality effects he wanted, and to that end, he learned a technique called split-screen (rear projection on overlapping miniature screens) to insert dinosaurs and other fantastic beasts into real-world backgrounds. The result was eventually picked up for release by Warner Bros. and was one of the most influential sci-fi films of the 1950s.
From there, Harryhausen went over to Columbia and teamed with producer Charles H. Schneer, which became synonymous among sci-fi and fantasy film aficionados with top-notch special-effects work during the remainder of their respective careers. After three sci-fi monster films and work with Willis O'Brien on an Irwin Allen documentary, Harryhausen did the effects work for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), his first split-screen film shot entirely in color, which was highlighted by Harryhausen's mythological monsters interacting with Kathryn Grant, Torin Thatcher's flavorful performance as the villain, and the rousing score of Bernard Herrmann.
Because Harryhausen worked alone on his stop-motion animation sequences, the filming of these could often take as long as two years, the most famous example of the kind of patience required being the exciting skeleton sword fight sequence in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) (his most popular film), in which Harryhausen often shot no more than 13 frames of film (just over one-half second of elapsed time) per day.
The 1960s were Harryhausen's best years, among the highlights being his reunions with dinosaurs in Hammer Films' One Million Years B.C. (1966) and The Valley of Gwangi (1969). His pace slowed in the 1970s, but he produced three of his masterworks during that period: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973); Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977); and Clash of the Titans (1981). It was not until 1992 that Harryhausen finally achieved film immortality with an honorary Oscar, a long-overdue tribute to the one name that personifies visual magic.- Erich Kaestner, not to be confused with the famous German writer of the same name, was a German constructing engineer who worked for more than fifty years for the "ARRI" in Munich. He developed some of the most useful film cameras, a work, for which he was awarded with many prestigious awards: Three Academy Awards (1967, 1975 and in 1993 the Gordon E. Sawyer Award) and the Honorary Bavarian Film Award in 1995. He passed away in January 2005 at the age of 93.
- Special Effects
- Additional Crew
Petro Vlahos was born on 20 August 1916 in Raton, New Mexico, USA. He is known for Battle Beyond the Stars (1980), Movie Magic (1994) and The 67th Annual Academy Awards (1995). He was married to Virginia. He died on 10 February 2013 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Sound Department
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Producer
Donald C. Rogers is known for Grease 2 (1982), The Blue Max (1966) and They Saved Hitler's Brain (1968).- Camera and Electrical Department
- Additional Crew
Don Iwerks was born on 24 July 1929 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is known for Tron (1982), Magic Journeys (1982) and Italia '61 (1961). He has been married to Betty Keeler since 8 April 1972. He was previously married to Phyllis Joyce Elwood.- Producer
- Visual Effects
- Additional Crew
Irwin Young was born on 30 May 1927 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer, known for Nothing But a Man (1964), Alambrista! (1977) and American Me (1992). He was married to Diane Nalven. He died on 20 January 2022 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.- Camera and Electrical Department
Ed Di Giulio was born on 13 June 1927 in the USA. He is known for Barry Lyndon (1975), Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001) and The 50th Annual Academy Awards (1978). He was married to Louise DiGiulio. He died on 4 June 2004 in Malibu, California, USA.- Visual Effects
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Additional Crew
- Tak Miyagishima was born on 15 March 1928 in Gardena, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Predators from Beyond Neptune (1999), Science of the Movies (2009) and Eiga no tatsujin 2: End Credits (2009). He died on 4 August 2011 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Visual Effects
- Animation Department
- Additional Crew
- Visual Effects
- Executive
Ray Feeney is known for Human Highway (1982).- Visual Effects
David Grafton is known for Blade Runner (1982), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).- Additional Crew
- Visual Effects
- Producer
Ed Catmull was born on 31 March 1945 in Parkersburg, West Virginia, USA. He is a producer, known for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Big Hero 6 (2014) and Brave (2012). He has been married to Susan Anderson since 11 June 1983. They have three children.- Producer
- Director
- Visual Effects
Legendary filmmaker and visual effects pioneer, Douglas Trumbull, was one of the Special Photographic Effects Supervisors for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). He went on to become the Visual Effects Supervisor for such classics as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), and Blade Runner (1982), each of which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects.
Mr. Trumbull directed Silent Running (1972), Brainstorm (1983), Back to the Future... The Ride (1991) and numerous other special format films.
He is the recipient of an Academy Award in the area of Scientific and Technical Achievement, as well as the International Monitor Award and American Society of Cinematographers' Lifetime Achievement Award for his outstanding contributions in the field of filmmaking. Douglas is currently involved in the evolution of visual effects using virtual digital sets and electronic cinematography.- Visual Effects
- Additional Crew
- Cinematographer
Peter Anderson, ASC - VES Director of Photography and Visual Effects Supervisor Peter is the one of the world's premier leaders on Hi-Tech productions. An expert in filming Visual Effects, Digital Cinema, 3-D, Special Venue, Large Format, Theme Park, and High Frame Rate Productions, he is also instrumental to the development of these technologies. While independent for most of his career, Peter started as the director of Macy's Photo Advertising, and later as the Disney Studio's staff Director of Photography. He was also the head of Visual Effects facilities for both Walt Disney Studios and Universal Studios. On this IMBD Pro site you may also go to Peter's resume to view his extensive list of productions. Peter is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers, and The International Cinematographer's Guild. A member of the Motion Picture Academy, where he served on the Executive Committees of its Visual Effects Branch and its Scientific and Technology Council, on its Scientific and Technical Awards and Surrogate Committees and as the former Chairman of its Technical History Subcommittee. He is a founding member, an Honorary Fellow and five term Board Director of the Visual Effects Society. He is a member of the Television Academy's Cinematographer's Branch. And is a Honorary Life Member of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers. Over the course of his illustrious career Peter's skills and knowledge have frequently resulted in his being requested to present keynote speeches, to serve as a teacher and chair for judging, and to present programs and technical workshops worldwide. In 2006 Peter received the Visual Effects Society's Award "...for his groundbreaking work on "U2 3D". In 2014 Pete Anderson received the Motion Picture Academy's Gordon E. Sawyer Special Oscar "For Technological Contributions that have brought Credit to the Industry". In 2017 Peter received the Cine Gear Expo's Legacy Lifetime Achievement Award for "...in recognition of the significance contributions he has made to advancing the art and craft of Cinematography- Sound Department
- Actor
- Visual Effects
- Additional Crew
Born in England in 1939, Jonathan Erland commenced his professional training in the entertainment industry in 1954, studying theatre at the Central School (where fellow students included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench) and film at the London Film School where he received his visual effects "baptism by fire" on the student film, Brief Armistice, an anti-war, battlefield film set in World War II. After additional studies at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, he began work with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation during the heyday of live television drama, including such classics as William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, George Bernard Shaw's Doctor's Dilemma, and Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters. His knowledge of theatre technology made him a desirable asset to the team building the Charles Eames-designed audio animatronic puppet theatres for the I.B.M. Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. Moving to Los Angeles, he maintained dual careers in both the entertainment and industrial / exhibit design fields. His eclectic backgrounds merged harmoniously when his industrial design knowledge made him a desirable asset for Industrial Light and Magic, the group formed by John Dykstra, A.S.C., to create the visual effects for the film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). He continued his association with Dykstra, serving as Director of Research and Development for Apogee Productions. At Apogee, he received patents and Academy Awards for Reverse Bluescreen, the Blue-Max flux projector and a method for making front projection screens. The author of some twenty Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineering (SMPTE) papers, he has received the Society's Journal Award and the Fuji Gold Medal. In 1993, he served as program chair for the SMPTE Technical Conference. He is a Life Fellow of the Society, an Associate of the American Society of Cinematographers (since 1986 the A.S.C. Manual has carried an Erland tutorial: "The Future of Traveling Matte Photography", and he was a founder of the Technology Council of the Motion Picture and Television Industries. In 1997, he became a founder of the Visual Effects Society. In addition to serving as a Director for the VES, he has also served on their Technology Committee, and, for seven years, as Membership Chair. In 2006, the VES awarded him their inaugural Founders Award. In 2010 he, along with Douglas Trumbull and Dennis Muren, became the first Fellows of the VES. In 1984, Erland was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and in 1995, as Chairman of the Visual Effects Award Steering Committee, he achieved the long sought goal of establishing Visual Effects as a Branch of the Academy. He has served eleven years on the Board of Governors of the Academy, twenty-five years on the Executive Committee of the Visual Effects Branch and the Scientific and Engineering Awards Committee. He has served also on the Student Academy Awards Committee and the Foreign Films Committee. He's a founding member of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures Committee, as well as the Academy Science and Technology Council, where he has served on the Executive Committee and chaired the Research Committee and the Solid State Light subcommittee. For the Council he has appeared in a number of public programs such as, "Movie Magic" where he presented the pre-cinema segment, "Minwa-Za Company of Tokyo" a program on Japanese shadow puppetry, "Illuminating the Future: the Arrival of Solid State Lighting" from which his presentation of "The Science of Colour" can be seen on the Academy website. In 2011, at NAB and also CineGear he presented, "Chromatic Chaos: Implications of Newly Introduced Forms of Stagelight." a study of solid state lighting, which was also presented for the ASC-sponsored International Cinematographers Symposium, chaired by President Michael Goi, ASC. The Council, located at the Academy's Pickford Centre for Motion Picture Studies, is also home to the Esmeralda Stage(TM) an imaging research laboratory Erland has been building for the past twenty-five years. In 1993, he and his wife Kay founded Composite Components Company, which specializes in traveling matte composite technology, and in 1996 the Academy awarded them a Scientific and Engineering Award for the Digital Series(TM) of traveling matte backings. In 2008, he received an Academy Award of Commendation for "his leadership efforts (in 1992) toward identifying and solving the problem of High-Speed Emulsion Stress Syndrome in motion picture film stock." In 2012, Erland was honored with the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation, which recognizes, "outstanding service and dedication in upholding the high standards of the Academy."