Douglas Trumbull death: Visual effects master on 2001: A Space Odyssey, dies aged 79

Trumball also directed sci-fi cult classic, ‘Silent Running’ in 1972

Douglas Trumbull, the pioneering visual effects artist and director of Silent Running has died, aged 79.

His daughter, Amy, who announced the news on Facebook, said that he died on Monday [8 February] “after a major two year battle with cancer, a brain tumor and a stroke”.

She wrote: “He was an absolute genius and a wizard and his contributions to the film and special effects industry will live on for decades and beyond.”

“My sister Andromed and I got to see him on Saturday and tell him that we love him and we got to tell him to enjoy and embrace his journey into the Great Beyond,” she added.

Trumbull created visual effects for some of the most highly regarded films of all time including Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. His work is regarded as some of the finest in the field of visual effects.

He later went on to direct the sci-fi cult classic Silent Running in 1972 as well as 1983s Brainstorm, which featured Natalie Wood’s last performance before her death in 1981.

Trumbull left Hollywood in the 1980s after becoming exhausted with studio politics and he moved into developing pioneering special effect techniques that could be used in film.

He later came out of retirement to work with Terrence Malick on 2011’s The Tree of Life.

Trumbull was nominated for three Best Visual Effects Academy Awards for Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Blade Runner, but he never won.

Trumbull was born in Los Angeles in 1942. His father Donald was also a visual effects artist who worked on The Wizard of Oz. After initially wanting to be an architect, Trumbull started working on short films for NASA as an illustrator and airbrush artist. His work there was noticed by Stanley Kubrick, who brought him into Hollywood.