
Ken Ralston
Visual Effects
Biography
Kenneth Ralston (born 1954) is an American visual effects artist, visual effects supervisor and Creative Head at Sony Pictures Imageworks. Ralston began his career at the commercial animation and visual effects company Cascade Pictures in Hollywood, where he worked on over 150 advertising campaigns in the early 1970s. In 1976, Dennis Muren hired him at Industrial Light & Magic to help George Lucas create the effects for Star Wars. He remained at ILM for 20 years before joining Sony Pictures Imageworks as president. Ralston is best known for his work in the films of Robert Zemeckis. Ralston has won five Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects, including a Special Achievement Academy Award 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). Description above from the Wikipedia article Ken Ralston, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography (33)
- When Star Wars Ruled the World (2004, ★ 8.8)
- Forrest Gump (1994, ★ 8.5)
- Through the Eyes of Forrest Gump (1994, ★ 7.5)
- Star Wars: Greatest Moments (2015, ★ 7)
- Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan (2012, ★ 7.4)
- From Star Wars to Star Wars: The Story of Industrial Light & Magic (1999, ★ 7.9)
- Back to the Future Part II (1989, ★ 7.8)
- Alice in Wonderland: Effecting Wonderland (2010, ★ 6.8)
- The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek (2021, ★ 6.9)
- LIGHT & MAGIC (2022, ★ 7.8)
- Contact (1997, ★ 7.4)
- Cast Away (2000, ★ 7.7)
- Death Becomes Her (1992, ★ 6.8)
- Jumanji (1995, ★ 7.2)
- Back to the Future Part III (1990, ★ 7.5)
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988, ★ 7.5)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982, ★ 7.4)
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986, ★ 7.2)
- Dreams (1990, ★ 7.7)
- Beowulf (2007, ★ 5.9)
- The American President (1995, ★ 6.5)
- Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016, ★ 6.6)
- Cocoon (1985, ★ 6.6)
- Phenomenon (1996, ★ 6.5)
- The Polar Express (2004, ★ 6.7)
- Alice in Wonderland (2010, ★ 6.6)
- Men in Black 3 (2012, ★ 6.5)
- Men in Black II (2002, ★ 6.4)
- The Rocketeer (1991, ★ 6.5)
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984, ★ 6.6)