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| MR. GILLIS IS BASED IN LOS ANGELES, CA. |
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| MR. WOODRUFF IS BASED IN LOS ANGELES, CA. |
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Tom Woodruff (in Gorilla costume) and Alec Gillis have been
making movie history for years! TOGETHER they have created and performed some of your FAVORITE characters including THE ALIEN
WARRIOR from Alien 3, Alien Resurection and the upcoming ALIEN vs PREDATOR! PLUS other characters include PUMPKINHEAD, the
ALIEN from X-FILES THE MOVIE and the Blue Gorilla Creature in EVOLUTION!
Tom Woodruff Jr. was born in Williamsport,
Pennsylvania in 1959. Tom's early interest in movies and monsters was a result of late-night broadcasts of the now classic
Universal monster movies and the stop-motion effects of Ray Harryhausen. Finally, seeing one of the PLANET OF THE APES films
in a theater focused his attention on the craft of make-up, while getting his hands on his father's 8mm home movie camera
at 13 years old simultaneously encouraged his interest in filmmaking.
While living so far from Hollywood, Tom's
only professional contact was through the mail, writing letters to the artists who's work he admired most, like John Chambers,
who created the PLANET OF THE APES make-ups.
Tom finally made his move to Los Angeles in 1982. After a year of working
with small make-up effects houses, Tom joined Stan Winston's team on TERMINATOR. That was the beginning of a five-year
period which saw Tom become a key coordinator under Winston, with the opportunity to work on such features as ALIENS and PREDATOR
as well as TV shows such as AMAZING STORIES. During this time, Tom began wearing the complicated make-ups and costumes of
the creatures designed at the studio. His physical build and tolerance, as well as his ability to perform as an actor, led
to his portraying the title characters in such movies as MONSTER SQUAD, PUMPKINHEAD, and LEVIATHAN.
During these
years, Tom continued to write, ultimately teaming up with another of Stan's designer-technicians, Alec Gillis, to co-produce,
write, and direct THE DEMON WITH THREE TALES, a promotional piece designed to sell a feature anthology project. Tom and Alec
quickly grew to become two of the major character effects talents in the business today, with their work gathering numerous
accolades and awards including an Academy Award for DEATH BECOMES HER and multiple Academy Award nominations for STARSHIP
TROOPERS and ALIEN3.
Tom joined the Director's Guild in 1998, directing a number of segments for the Dick
Clark series, BEYOND BELIEF. In between effect-oriented productions. Tom and Alec continue to write and develop their own
personal projects; projects that will eventually see them not only as character effects and make-up artists, but also as filmmakers.
Alec Gillis was born in 1959 in Phoenix, Arizona, and a short time later moved to Orange County, California.
By age ten, he was an avid fan of fantasy and science fiction movies. Influenced by films such as PLANET OF THE APES, KING
KONG, and JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, Alec began making his own amateur movies, and by age thirteen had decided that creating
creatures for Hollywood was to be his career. Alec's first professional job was on Roger Corman's low budget space-epic,
BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980). There he worked with many other talented industry newcomers, most notably director James
Cameron. The next eight
years were spent first attending UCLA's film school, then working for some of the industry's
top names in make-up effects, most notably Stan Winston (ALIENS, LEVIATHAN, ALIEN NATION).
It was during his years
with Winston that Alec met his future business partner, Tom Woodruff, Jr. In 1988 Alec and Tom left Stan Winston Studio and
formed Amalgamated Dynamics, Incorporated. Dedicated to the highest standards of quality in Animatronics and Special Make-up,
Alec and Tom have created effects in such films as TREMORS (Universal, 1990) and ALIEN3 (Fox, 1991), for which they were Oscar
nominees. In 1993 the duo won the Best Visual Effects Oscar for their work on DEATH BECOMES HER. Other career highlights include
animal characters for JUMANJI, Tim Allen's fat make-ups for THE SANTA CLAUSE, and another Visual Effects Oscar nomination
for STARSHIP TROOPERS.
You can catch a brief look at some "bird" work they did in this years WILD HOGS (starring
TIM ALLEN)......
......Currently in development for USA Networks is ROADHOGS, a comedy series written by Alec
featuring animatronic puppet characters of his creation.
GREAT NEWS FANS!!!! TOM and IAN can currently be seen in AVP-R
on DVD now!
PLUS Tom has finished his OWN short film called MY COUSIN'S KEEPER, look for it at film festivals NOW!
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