Joe Viskocil, Visual Effects Guru on 'Star Wars' Films, Dies at 63

by Mike Barnes

'Independence Day'

He won an Oscar for ‘Independence Day’ and also worked on two ‘Terminator’ films, ‘Batman Returns’ and ‘Star Trek: Nemesis’

Joe Viskocil, a pyrotechnics expert who worked on the first two Star Wars films and earned an Oscar for his visual effects wizardry on Independence Day, has died. He was 63.

Viskocil died Monday in a Los Angeles hospital from complications of liver and kidney failure, according to talent agentDerek Maki of Coolwaters Productions.

For Star Wars (1977), Viskocil assisted John Dykstra andGeorge Lucas' newly created Industrial Light & Magic to create the spectacular explosion of the Death Star in the film's climactic ending. He then returned for Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980).

Viskocil shared his Oscar with Volker Engel, Douglas Smithand Clay Pinney for Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day(1996), which is best known for its scene of aliens blowing up the White House.

Viskocil also was credited for pyrotechnic work on such films asGhostbusters (1984), Masters of the Universe (1987), Killer Klowns From Outer Space (1988), Batman Returns (1992), True Lies (1994), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Battlefield Earth (2000), Star Trek: Nemesis (2002) and Source Code (2011).

He created the nuclear explosion featured in The Return of the Living Dead (1985) and also worked onBarton Fink (1991), The Terminator (1984) and its 1991 sequel, The Abyss (1989), Alien: Resurrection(1997), Panic Room (2002) and Team America: World Police (2004).

His most recent credit is The Prey, an action horror thriller starring Danny Trejo that’s due in theaters in October.

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