Richard Edlund, American visual effects designer and cinematographer
Richard Edlund, A.S.C. (born December 6, 1940) is a multi-Academy Award-winning US special effects cinematographer.
Edlund was born in Fargo, North Dakota and raised in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. After first joining the United States Navy, he developed an interest in experimental film and attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts in the late 1960s. On the strength of a couple of short films, he was picked by John Dykstra to work as first cameraman at the embryonic Industrial Light & Magic on the production on Star Wars for which he shared an Academy Award.
Edlund continued to work with Dykstra on Battlestar Galactica but was invited back by George Lucas to work on The Empire Strikes Back. Edlund's considerable technical challenge on this film was to optically composite miniatures against a white background resulting in a second Academy Award. Edlund also did distinguished work for Lucas and ILM on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist.
In 1983, following the completion of Return of the Jedi, Edlund set up his own effects company, Boss Films, whose credits include Ghostbusters, Big Trouble in Little China, Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October, Cliffhanger, Outbreak and Air Force One. Boss Film Studios was one of the first traditional effects houses that successfully transitioned from "tangible world" visual effects, to computer generated imagery, with many notable CGI artists beginning their careers at Boss.
Aside from film-work, Edlund also developed and manufactured the Pignose portable-style guitar amplifier (co-designed by Wayne Kimball).Edlund was married to Rita Kogan, the only daughter of entrepreneur Michael Kogan, before her death in 2019.