Overview
Chris Walas
Known For
Gremlins: A Puppet Story
Take a unique behind-the-scenes journey (made especially for the Hollywood...
Phil Tippett: Mad Dreams and Monsters
An in-depth, sad, and beautiful documentary about the stop motion...
It's Getting Weirder! The Making of "House II"
Retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Ethan Wiley, Sean S. Cunningham,...
Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex
The Frankenstein Complex takes a historical as well as a...
From Gizmo to Gremlins: Creating the Creatures
Chris Walas and Howie Mandel, the voice of Gizmo, describe...
The Scanners Way: Creating the Special Effects in 'Scanners'
This Documentary goes over how the special effects in the...
Fear of the Flesh: The Making of The Fly
Feature length documentary on the making of David Cronenberg's The...
Biography
Chris Walas is an American film director, special effects expert, and make-up artist. He was born in Chicago, Illinois. Walas rose to fame in the 1980s, with effects for films such as "Airplane!" (1980), "Dragonslayer" (1981), and "Return of the Jedi" (1983). In the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), Walas created the effects for a scene where the Nazi villains' faces melt from the intense heat generated by the Ark of the Covenant. In 1984, Walas was credited for the design of the gremlins in the film "Gremlins", a film that grossed 153.1 million dollars at the box office. After creating the creature effects for "The Fly" (1986), Walas was invited to direct the sequel film "The Fly II" (1989), His directing debut earned about 39 million dollars at the worldwide box office. His only other credit as a film director was the horror comedy "The Vagrant" (1992), depicting a man who believes himself stalked by a stranger. The film received a limited release in 8 movie theaters. In the 1990s, Walas film credits for effects and make-up included such films as the black comedy "Arachnophobia" (1990), the science fiction film "Naked Lunch" (1991), the virtual reality-themed science fiction film "Virtuosity" (1995), and the erotic thriller "Jade" (1995). None of them was particularly successful. Walas' special effects were less in demand in the 2000s. His last film credit to date was creating the angels for the horror film "Dark Heaven" (2002). - IMDb Mini Biography By: Dimos I