John Dykstra

Biography

John Charles Dykstra, A.S.C. (/ˈdaɪkstrə/; born June 3, 1947) is an American special effects artist, a pioneer in developing computers in filmmaking and a recipient of three Academy Awards, among many other awards and prizes. He was one of the original employees of Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects and computer graphics division of Lucasfilm. He is well known as the special effects lead on the original Star Wars, helping bring the original visuals for lightsabers, space battles between X-wings and TIE fighters, and Force powers to the screen. He also led special effects on many other movies, including Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Stuart Little, X-Men: First Class, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2.