This celebrates John Stears, who had the 90th anniversary of his birth last year and who won Oscars for his work on visual effects in the Star Wars saga and the James Bond films. Born in Uxbridge, Hillingdon, Middlesex (now part of Greater London), he attended Swakelys Secondary Modern School in Ickenham, Middlesex (where he grew up) 1945-9, then had success as an art student, studying at Harrow College of Art (now part of University of Westminster) and Southall Technical School (now part of Ealing Tertiary College), prior to joining the Air Ministry as a draughtsman and during national service he was a dispatch rider. He joined a firm of architects where he became adept at model-making their designs, developing a passion for building and flying model aircraft & vintage bikes. He started working special effects for Reach for the Sky 1956 (The Douglas Bader story) at Rank, Pinewood, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, having worked at Shawcraft Models Ltd in Iver. He became known as The Dean of F/X & The Real Q. He worked on 43 films eventually becoming an Assistant Director and is particularly known for Star Wars – A New Hope 1977 [won Oscar Best Visual Effects], Thunderball 1965 [won Oscar Best Visual Effects] and Outland 1981. He created all of the effects on the iconic Aston Martin DB5 in Goldfinger 1964, and on Star Wars he created the lightsaber, Luke Skywalker’s land speeder, the Death Star as well as C3PO and R2-D2. With his wife and eventually two children, he lived most of his life in Welders House, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire and they started the world renowned Livny Borzoi Kennels in England and bred many champion dogs. In 1993 he sold the house and estate to Ozzy Osbourne & moved to California. He died in 1999 aged 64 of a stroke in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles.
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