Linwood Dunn; Film Effects Expert

Linwood Dunn, revered trailblazer of motion picture special-effects creators, has died at the age of 94.

The Academy Award-winning Dunn, who handled special effects for the original “King Kong,” died of cancer Wednesday at Providence-St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank.

The seeds for his first Oscar germinated during World War II, when Dunn designed special-effects photographic equipment for Eastman Kodak and the U.S. armed forces. At the end of the war he received a special commendation for his work from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That award was upgraded to an Oscar in 1981 when Dunn’s design, known as the Acme-Dunn special-effects optical printer, became the standard in the film industry.

In 1984, Dunn earned his second statuette, the Gordon E. Sawyer Academy Award, for his seminal and continuing contributions to technology.

A respected authority in his field, Dunn helped select special-effects Oscar nominees for many years. He served on the Academy board, representing cinematographers and later its visual effects branch.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Dunn began his long career as a projectionist in New York in 1923. Within three years he was hand-cranking a movie camera in Hollywood, filming silent Pathe serials.

From 1928 to 1956, Dunn was a cinematographer and head of the photographic effects department for RKO. There, he created the special effects for most of its films, including the classics “King Kong,” “Citizen Kane,” “The Thing,” “Mighty Joe Young” and Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals such as “Flying Down to Rio.”

He also founded Film Effects of Hollywood in 1946 and served as its president until 1980. Among his screen credits were “West Side Story,” “The Great Race,” “Hawaii,” “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” and the original “Star Trek” television series.

Dunn twice served as president and was also treasurer and a 25-year board member of the American Society of Cinematographers, which gave him its lifetime achievement award for visual effects in 1990.

Two years later, he received the lifetime achievement award of the National Cinephile Society. It was presented by Fay Wray, star of “King Kong.”

Dunn, a popular international lecturer and teacher, also earned the Golden Hugo statuette of the Chicago Film Festival and received the first honorary doctorate awarded in motion picture arts by the San Francisco Art Institute.

He helped found the International Photographers Guild in 1928 and years later the Technology Council of the Motion Picture and Television Industry.

Dunn is survived by his wife, Alice; four daughters, Nancy, Pamela, Gayle and Judy; and several grandchildren.