Brian Johnson
Crew
Born 1939-06-29
Died 2026-06-15
Surrey, England, UK
73 credits
Read biography
Brian Johncock (born 29 June 1939) is a British designer and director of film and television special effects. He changed his surname to Johnson during the 1960s.
Joining the team of special effects artist Les Bowie, Johnson started his career behind the scenes for Bowie Films on productions such as On the Buses, and for Hammer Films. He is known for his special effects work on TV series including Thunderbirds (1965–66) and films including Alien (1979), for which he received the 1980 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects (shared with H. R. Giger, Carlo Rambaldi, Dennis Ayling and Nick Allder). Previously, he had built miniature spacecraft models for Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Johnson's work on Space: 1999 influenced the effects of the Star Wars films of the 1970s and 1980s. Impressed by his work, George Lucas visited Johnson during the production of the TV series to offer him the role of effects supervisor for the 1977 film. Having already been commissioned for the second series of Space: 1999, Johnson was unable to accept at the time. He worked on the sequel, The Empire Strikes Back (1980), whose special effects were recognised in the form of a 1981 Special Achievement Academy Award (which Johnson shared with Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren and Bruce Nicholson).
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Filmography
— top 60 of 73
Acting
59 credits
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
Alien
Aliens
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Empire Strikes Back
Space: 1999
Thunderbirds
The NeverEnding Story
Krull
Spies Like Us
Highlander III: The Sorcerer
Revenge of the Pink Panther
Dragonslayer
Space Truckers
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
Quatermass and the Pit
The Medusa Touch
First Men in the Moon
Quatermass 2
Taste the Blood of Dracula
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
The Crawling Eye
Captain Clegg
Moon Zero Two
The Kiss of the Vampire
Slipstream
The Phantom of the Opera
SP FX: The Empire Strikes Back
The Pirates of Penzance
2001: The Making of a Myth
Thunderbirds: Brink of Disaster
The Day After Tomorrow: Into Infinity
The Beast Within: Making Alien
Thunderbirds: Security Hazard
Thunderbirds: Danger at Ocean Deep
Alien Attack
Prisoners in Space
Filmed in Supermarionation
Thunderbirds: 30 Minutes After Noon
The Alien Legacy
Thunderbirds: Edge of Impact
Thunderbirds: Move - And You're Dead
Thunderbirds: End of The Road
Countdown to Disaster
Family Vanished
Thunderbirds: The Man from MI.5
Thunderbirds: The Duchess Assignment
Journey Through the Black Sun
Thunderbirds: Day of Disaster
Thunderbirds: Cry Wolf
Thunderbirds: The Cham-Cham
Thunderbirds: Attack of the Alligators!
Thunderbirds: The Imposters
Thunderbirds: The Mighty Atom
This Is Supermarionation
Thunderbirds: The Uninvited
Thunderbirds: Vault of Death
Thunderbirds: Terror In New York City
The Eagle Obsession
Other credits
1 credit
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