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Tom Woodruff, Jr. is an actor and special effects artist who has worked on every Alien and Alien vs. Predator film since Aliens. He co-owns Amalgamated Dynamics alongside his longtime partner and friend Alec Gillis.
Alien franchise credits[]
Creature effects[]
- Aliens (1986)
The Dragon[]
- Alien3 (1992)
Cloned Alien[]
- Alien Resurrection (1997)
Other credits[]
- Amazing Stories (1986)
- The Monster Squad (1987)
- Alien Nation (1988)
- Leviathan (1989)
- Tremors (1990)
- Death Becomes Her (1992)
- Demolition Man (1993)
- Skyline (2010)
- The Thing (2011)
Biographical information[]
Personal life[]
Woodruff was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Much of his early interest in movies and monsters was a result of late-night broadcasts of the now classic Universal monster movies and the motion-stop effects of Ray Harryhausen.
Career[]
In 1985, Woodruff was working for Stan Winston on Aliens.[3] Woodruff helped sculpt the Alien Warrior head at Stan Winston Studio and touched up paint on the head in the workshop at Pinewood Studios.[4] Shortly after the Warrior costumes were completed and before filming, Tom stayed late after-hours one night, got into costume, and Richard Landon took the first set of photos of a completed Alien, "without even the benefit of covering the suit in slime as intended for the film."[5] Woodruff and Landon found a snowy backdrop outside of their workshop and he "thought it'd make a nice Christmas Card someday". Tom was "more interested in seeing how different body posing could disguise the shape of a man inside the suit than the intended on-screen finished look."
After seeing some of the performances and physiques of some of the performers wearing the Alien suits in Aliens, Tom was motivated to have a talk with Stan Winston that led to playing Gill-man (from Creature from the Black Lagoon) in a cameo appearance in The Monster Squad, their next film.
In 1988, Woodruff, Jr. and co-worker Alec Gills left Winston and founded Amalgamated Dynamics. As Winston was unavailable to work on Alien3, he recommended Amalgamated Dynamics to the producers. There Woodruff, Jr. played a Xenomorph for the first time, as the Runner. He then played the lead Alien in Alien Resurrection, "Grid" in Alien vs. Predator, and the Predalien in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.
Woodruff was nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects in Alien3 (An award he and Gillis later won for Death Becomes Her).
References[]
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=5001670111757&set=a.1489873239030.2068648.999946608&type=1&permPage=1
- ↑ http://www.studioadi.com/filmography.php#biography
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1622601957165&set=a.1443524840349.2058396.999946608&type=1&stream_ref=10
- ↑ https://www.facebook.com/studioADl/posts/572172096233132
- ↑ https://alienseries.wordpress.com/2014/01/16/strange-shapesmonster-legacy-interviews-tom-woodruff-jnr/