Albert Whitlock
Albert Whitlock ( born September 15, 1915 in London, England; † October 26, 1999 in Santa Barbara, California ) was a British matte painting artist.
Life
Whitlock began his film career in the late 1920s at the Gaumont Studios in London. After various ancillary activities, he worked first time in 1934 by Alfred Hitchcock; first as special effects assistant at The man who knew too much and the following year in The 39 Steps as a scene painter. This was the beginning of a longstanding cooperation, a total Whitlock worked on twelve films Hitchcock to his last film family grave in 1976. After the end of World War II Whitlock got a job at Walt Disney, after which he moved to the United States. He remained seven years at Disney and moved in 1961 to Universal Studios. In 1966 he created for the TV series Star Trek the backdrop of the abandoned planet Delta Vega. He created 70 painted scenes for the disaster film Earthquake and received the Special Achievement Award for this. The following year, he was on the Hindenburg again honored with the Special Achievement Award. He remained until his retirement in 1985 at Universal and worked occasionally as a consultant, including for Joe Dante's Gremlins 2 - The Return of the little monsters.