John Coppinger was born 13th July 1947 in Kent, where he lived until he was twenty one. He went to Maidstone College of Art in Kent
and later on to the St. Martins School of Art in London.
His fascination
with the combination of science and art were one of the main reasons he enjoyed working as a Scientific Model Maker for the
National History Museum, London until 1980. Some of his models are still on display in the Museum today.
After he left the Museum, his career in the film industry started with Jim Henson’s “The Dark Crystal” (1981). A fantasy movie, that reached cult status over the years.
The
second movie he ever worked on should become even more of a cult. It was “Return of the Jedi”.
He became an Animatronic Engineer for Stuart Freeborn, the sculptor of Jabba the Hutt and also operated
Jabba’s eyes via radio control on set.
Pursuing work in the film industry, John worked
as a sculptor on various movies. A few examples are:
“Greystoke” (1983),
“Santa Claus” (1986), “Little Buddha” (1992), “Fifth
Element” (1996), “Lost in Space” (1997), “The Mummy” and “The
Mummy returns” (1998 & 2001)
as well as the first three “Harry Potter” movies (between 2000 and 2003).
He
also kept on working freelance as a model maker for museums and TV productions, e.g. the BBC production “Walking with Dinosaurs”(1998) and “The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures” (2003, 2004 and 2005)
He
even became involved in the Thrust SSC Project, going out to the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, USA, to help
run the Supersonic Land Speed Record Car that broke the record and went supersonic in October 1997.
One of John’s wishes or ‘future fantasies’ as he calls them, while working on Return of the Jedi
was to come back 15 years later and do a young version of Jabba the Hutt.
It wasn’t
quite what happened, but he came back to Star Wars for “The
Phantom Menace” in 1997 and not
only got the wonderful work to re-sculpt a lot of the original Cantina characters, but also played the Wookiee Senator Yarua
and the Anxx Graxol Kelvyyn. He also stood in for Silas Carson as Ki-Adi-Mundi.
Star
Wars certainly will always keep a special place in John’s life. Or as he says it: “Whatever else happens, I have been on a Star Wars set. My favourite works will always be Jabba the Hutt and the
Diva from ‘Fifth Element’”
In November 2005 John finished and
published his first Science-Fiction Novel ‘Tertiary’ that one more time combines
science and art, but in a different way.
