RAMBALDI, CREATOR OF ALIEN AND ET CREATURES, DIES

Special-effects wizard Carlo Rambaldi, who created the creatures for Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror flick Alien and Steven Spielberg’s 1982 family film ET: The Extra-Terrestrial, has died at age 86. His work on those films brought him Oscars for visual effects. He also shared a special achievement Oscar in 1976 for King Kong. But his work on that film was dogged by controversy, with some saying that the mechanical creature that he created appeared on screen for barely 30 seconds because it failed to function properly on set and that the real star of the film was makeup artist Rick Baker, who received no screen credit. Rambaldi never could come to terms with digital special effects. “The mystery is gone,” he remarked in an interview with Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “It’s as if a magician had revealed all of his tricks.”