Kevin Pike

Kevin Pike
Kevin Pike
Born	May 9, 1951 (age 73); Hartford, Connecticut
Occupation	Special effects supervisor/talent agent/screenwriting consultant

J. Kevin Pike (born 9 May 1951) is an American film special effects supervisor, former below-the-line talent agent, and screenwriting consultant. Pike is best known for supervising the Special Effects of the 1985 film Back to the Future. He and his company Filmtrix, Inc. were responsible for the construction of the film's iconic DeLorean Time Machine.

Life and career

Pike was born in Hartford Connecticut to John Thomas Pike and Barbara Ann Clapp. He showed interest in the arts at an early age by making his own 8mm films. While attending Granby Memorial High School he served as President of the Drama Club for all four years during which he won Best Actor in 1967 for his role in The Apollo of Bellac. Pike graduated high school in 1969 and later studied Business Management at the University of Hartford.

Pike’s film career began in April 1974, while working as a busboy at the Harborside Restaurant in Martha's Vineyard, after a chance encounter with the first film crew of Jaws (1974) to arrive on the island. Pike was hired onto the film as a local doing set construction, painting of the shark, and ended up working with the Special Effects crew. After Jaws, Pike came out to Hollywood and continued his work in Special Effects with the major studios for film, television, and commercials. His work has served on numerous projects for Steven Spielberg and directors such as Robert Zemeckis, John Schlesinger, Taylor Hackford, David Fincher, Tim Burton, Wes Craven, and George Lucas.

He has also been a Director with the DGA since 1985, after garnering a series of commercials for Mattel and Second Unit directing. He is also a member of SAG/AFTRA and BAFTA. Pike has lectured at USC, UCLA, and Columbia College Hollywood as well as teaching Special Effects classes at the Academy of Art University. Additionally, Pike has served as a Governor for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences^[1] and on the Executive Committee for the Visual Effects Branch for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Kevin Pike lives north of Los Angeles, California, where he manages his company, Filmtrix, Inc. He is a writer’s consultant and a story developer for studios and production entities, helping writers complete their scripts and advising them on how to pitch their written work to producers and developers. He has three children; Jennifer Pike, Camille Pike, and Jackson Pike.

Awards

Pike has earned nominations and awards including a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Special Visual Effects for the Amblin Television Production Earth 2 in 1995,^[2] a Clio Award for Best Special Effects on a Levi’s commercial directed by Michael Bay in 2000.

He also received a BAFTA nomination,^[3] and was considered for Oscar nomination on Back to the Future.

Films

The following is a list of the most notable films with special effects by Kevin Pike.

1970s

Jaws (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Jaws 2 (1978)
The Frisco Kid (1979)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
1941 (1979)

1980s

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
The Last Starfighter (1984)
Back to the Future (1985)
Moonwalker (1988)

1990s

Ed Wood (1994)
Fight Club (1999)

2000s

Jurassic Park III (2001)
44 Minutes (2003)
Feast (2005)
Ask the Dust (2006)

References

Sources

External links

Kevin Pike at IMDb

^ De Santis, Solange (August 1985). "Steven Spielberg Builds a Time Machine". Popular Mechanics: 84–87, 132 – via Google Books.

[1] Emmy Board of Governors

[2] Earth 2 Emmy Awards and Nominations

[3] BAFTA Awards and Nominations 1985

[4] De Santis, Solange (August 1985). "Steven Spielberg Builds a Time Machine". Popular Mechanics: 84–87, 132 – via Google Books.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[1]

v t e Saturn Award for Best Special Effects
1970s	Marcel Vercoutere (1972) Joe Dante and Mark Goldblatt (1973) Douglas Knapp, Bill Taylor, John Carpenter, and Dan O'Bannon (1974/75) L. B. Abbott (1976) John Dykstra and John Stears (1977) Colin Chilvers (1978) Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra, and Richard Yuricich (1979)
1980s	Brian Johnson and Richard Edlund (1980) Richard Edlund (1981) Carlo Rambaldi and Dennis Muren (1982) Richard Edlund, Dennis Muren, and Ken Ralston (1983) Chris Walas (1984) Kevin Pike (1985) Stan Winston, Robert Skotak and Dennis Skotak (1986) Peter Kuran, Phil Tippett, Rob Bottin, and Rocco Gioffre (1987) George Gibbs, Ken Ralston, and Richard Williams (1988) Ken Ralston (1989/90)
1990s	Stan Winston (1991) Ken Ralston, Tom Woodruff Jr., and Alec Gillis (1992) Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Phil Tippett, and Michael Lantieri (1993) John Bruno (1994) Stan Parks (1995) Volker Engel, Clay Pinney, Douglas Smith, and Joe Viskocil (1996) Phil Tippett, Scott E. Anderson, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., John Richardson (1997) Volker Engel, Patrick Tatopoulos, Karen E. Goulekas, and Clay Pinney (1998) Rob Coleman, John Knoll, Dennis Muren, and Scott Squires (1999)
2000s	Scott E. Anderson, Craig Hayes, Scott Stokdyk, and Stan Parks (2000) Dennis Muren, Scott Farrar, Stan Winston, Michael Lantieri (2001) Rob Coleman, Pablo Helman, John Knoll, and Ben Snow (2002) Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, and Alex Funke (2003) John Dykstra, Scott Stokdyk, Anthony LaMolinara, and John Frazier (2004) Joe Letteri, Richard Taylor, Christian Rivers, and Brian Van't Hul (2005) John Knoll, Hal T. Hickel, Charles Gibson, and Allen Hall (2006) Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl, and John Frazier (2007) Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, and Paul J. Franklin (2008) Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew R. Jones (2009)
2010s	Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, Paul J. Franklin, and Peter Bebb (2010) Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri, R. Christopher White, and Daniel Barrett (2011) Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams, and Dan Sudick (2012) Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk, and Neil Corbould (2013) Paul J. Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter, and Scott R. Fisher (2014) Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan, and Chris Corbould (2015) John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel, and Neil Corbould (2016) Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner, and Dan Sudick (2017) Dan DeLeeuw, Matt Aitken, Russell Earl, and Dan Sudick (2018/19) Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, and Dominic Tuohy (2019/20)
2020s	John “D.J.” Des Jardin, Bryan Hirota, Kevin Andrew Smith, and Mike Meinardus (2021/22) Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, and Daniel Barrett (2022/23)
Note: The years are listed as per convention, usually the year of film release; the ceremonies are usually held the next year.