Dennis MurenBirth Place: Glendale, California, USA Date of Birth: November 1, 1946 Heritage: American Contact Dennis Muren | 
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Jurassic Park Background: Dennis Muren is an American film special effects artist. He has received a total of nine Academy Awards (including Special Achievement Awards and Technical Achievement Award) thanks to his work on such films as “Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back” (1981), “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982), “Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi” (1983), “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984), “Innerspace” (1987), “The Abyss” (1989), “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991), “Jurassic Park” (1993). On June 3, 1999, he was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, making him the only special effects artist with that honor. Muren also received the Visual Effects Society Lifetime Achievement Award, the Satellite Nicola Tesla Award (both 2007) and the Hollywood Film Visual Effects of the Year Award (2005). “I have no hobbies, per se. I spend all my spare time playing with my computer. My work is my hobby. It has never been: "Oh God, I have to get up and go earn a paycheck." This profession has always been something I've wanted or I was driven to do.” Dennis Muren
Childhood and Family: Dennis Elmer Muren was born on November 1, 1946, in Glendale, California, to Elmer Ernest Muren and Charline Louise Muren. As a child, he watched a number of science fiction movies and monster flicks, which stirred his imagination and initiated his interest in visual effects. His parents gave him a still camera when Dennis was eight and an 8mm camera when he was 10. He later upgraded his camera to 16mm, and started experimenting with stop motion and rear projection as a teenager. After high school, Dennis attended Pasadena City College, where, at the urge of his parents, he studied advertising and took business major. In his first year in college, he created a 16mm science fiction film called “The Equinox,” which featured a display of stop motion and photographic effects. The movie was picked up by a distributor, who added 40 minutes to it, blew it up to 35mm, and later give it limited release in B movie theaters. Dennis made back his $8,000 investment, and also got a credit as an associate producer despite the fact that he had directed much of the film and created the special effects himself. Dennis returned to school at California State University, Los Angeles, where he earned an Associate Degree. Dennis was married to wife Zara Pinfold in 1981. They have one son, Gregory Muren, and one daughter, Gwendolen Muren.
Career: After completing his education, Dennis Muren looked for work in the special effects departments of the major film studios but found rejections. He eventually landed a job at a television commercial production house, Cascade, and became a freelance special effect expert on the side. Together with many of his peers, he did uncredited work on “Flesh Gordon” (1974), an erotic spoof of the “Flash Gordon” serial films from the 1930s. In 1976, Muren joined George Lucas then new Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) as a special effects photographer under John Dykstra. The following year, he served as special effects photographer on Lucas and ILM's first film, “Star Wars,” which marked Muren's first worthy feature credit. Release on May 25, 1977, the film became a worldwide pop culture phenomenon. With a budget of $11 million, the film went on to earn $460 million in the United States and $337 million overseas, making it the highest grossing film and stayed that way until being surpassed by “E.T. the Extra Terrestrial” in 1982. The film won 6 Oscars for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design , Best Effects, Visual Effects , Best Film Editing, Best Music, Original Score and Best Sound, in addition to another 27 wins and 21 nominations.] After “Star Wars” finished, ILM was initially demolished. Muren then worked for Douglas Trumbull, assisting in photography of the mothership in Steven Spielberg's critically and commercially successful science fiction movie, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977). He next followed Dykstra to his own company, Apogee, and helped create effects for the original TV series, “Battlestar Galactica” (ABC, 1978). It was not long before Muren was called by Lucas to return to a reformed ILM for “The Empire Strikes Back,” which was released in 1980 and enjoyed another huge commercial success. Credited for miniature and optical effects photography, Muren won the 1981 Academy Award for Special Achievement Award, sharing with Brian Johnson, Richard Edlund and Bruce Nicholson. In 1982, Muren served as visual effects supervisor on the blockbuster science fiction movie “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” (1982), the story of a lonely boy who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed “E.T.”, who is stranded on Earth. Directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, the film grossed nearly $793 million against a budget of $10.5 million, making it the highest grossing film and held that title for over a decade until being surpassed by “Jurassic Park.” The film brought Muren his first Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects, which he shared with Carlo Rambaldi and Kenneth Smith, as w ell as a Saturn for Best Special Effects and a BAFTA Film nomination for Best Special Visual Effects. Muren gained further notice with his work on “Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi” (1983), the third film released in the “Star Wars” saga. Directed by Richard Marquand and written by Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan, the film earned mostly positive reviews and grossed more than $475 million worldwide. Muren picked up the Special Achievement Award at the 1984 Academy Awards for his work on the film, in addition to the Saturn Award for Best Special Effects and the BAFTA Film Award for Best Special Visual Effects. He next won a 1985 Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects for the Harrison Ford film “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984), which marked Muren's another collaboration with Steven Spielberg. The film also brought him a BAFTA Film Award for Best Special Visual Effects. Muren also was nominated for an Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects for the adventure/mystery film “Young Sherlock Holmes” (1985), which was directed by Barry Levinson and produced by Spielberg. Also in 1985, Muren provided special effect for “The Ewok Adventure,” a Lucas produced ABC children's special, from which he won an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Special Visual Effects. After working on the “Captain Eo” and “Star Tours” attractions at the Disney theme parks, Muren returned to feature films as visual effect supervisor for the Joe Dante science fiction film “Innerspace” (1987), for which he won an Oscar and a Saturn nomination. He went on to work on such films as “Empire of the Sun” (1987, additional optical effects), Ron Howard's action/adventure film, “Willow” (1988), from which he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Effects, Visual Effects, “ Ivan Reirman's“Ghostbusters II” (1989) and James Cameron's “The Abyss” (1989), for which he took home an Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects. In early 1990s, Muren led ILM's move from models and miniatures to CGI for the sequel film “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991), which was co-written and directed by James Cameron. The film brought him a 1992 Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects and a BAFTA Film for Best Special Visual Effects. In 1993, Muren was credited as full motion dinosaur creator on the Steven Spielberg film “Jurassic Park” (1993), an adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel of the same name. The film is considered as a landmark in the use of computer generated imagery, and gained highly positive reviews from critics for such. During its release, “Jurassic Park” made over $900 million worldwide, becoming the most successful film released up to that time. Muren shared an Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects, a Saturn for Best Special Effects and a BAFTA Film Award for Best Special Effects for his efforts. Muren was credited as effects advisor on the box office hits “Twister” and “Mission: Impossible” (both 1996) and supervised creation of the dinosaurs in “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” (1997), where he netted an Oscar nomination for Best Effects, Visual Effects for his work. In 1999, he served as visual effects supervisor on “Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace” and jointly picked up an Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects for his work. Entering the new millennium, Muren served as visual effects supervisor on “ A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (2001), a science fiction drama film directed, produced and co-written by Steven Spielberg. The film, which was greeted with mostly positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success, earned Muren a 2002 Oscar nomination for Best Effects, Visual Effects and a Saturn Award. In the following years, he worked as visual effects supervisor on “Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones” (2002) and “Hulk” (2003), directed by Ang Lee, and as senior visual effects supervisor on Spielberg's “War of the Worlds” (2005), from which he shared an Oscar nomination for Best Achievement in Visual Effects . Recently, in 2011, Muren served as visual effects supervisor on the J.J. Abrams science fiction/thriller movie “Super 8,” starring Elle Fanning, Amanda Michalka and Kyle Chandler.
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