Ken Ralston

Kenneth "Ken" Ralston (born 1954) is an American visual effects artist, currently the Visual Effect Supervisor and Creative Head at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Ralston began his career at the seminal commercial animation and visual effects company, Cascade Pictures in Hollywood, where he worked on over 150 advertising campaigns in the early 1970s.[1] In 1976, he was hired at Industrial Light & Magic by Dennis Muren to help George Lucas create the effects for Star Wars.[2] He remained in ILM for 20 years before joining Sony Pictures Imageworks as president.[3] Ralston is best known for his work in the films of Robert Zemeckis.[1]

Ralston has won five Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, including a Special Achievement Oscar for the visual effects in Return of the Jedi (1983), and regular awards for his work on Cocoon (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Death Becomes Her (1992) and Forrest Gump (1994). He was nominated three more times for Dragonslayer (1981), Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Alice in Wonderland (2010).[1]

Ken has contributed to several DVD commentaries:

King Kong (1933) - with visual effects creator Ray Harryhausen

Mighty Joe Young (1949) - with visual effects creator Ray Harryhausen and actress Terry Moore

Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) - with director Robert Zemeckis, producer Frank Marshall, associate producer Steve Starkey, screenwriters Jeffrey Price and Peter Seaman

Contact (1997) - with visual effects supervisor Stephen Rosenbaum

Cast Away (2000) - with cinematographer Don Burgess, visual effects supervisor Carey Villegas, sound designer Randy Thom