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E.T. creator dies at 86
Oscar-winner passed away in southern Italy after suffering a long illness
Carlo Rimbaldi, the special effects master behind 'E.T. the Extra Terrestrial' and a host of other Hollywood films, has died at the age of 86.
He had been suffering from a long illness, according to the Washington Post, and passed away in his home of Calabria, southern Italy.
Most famous for his Oscar-winning extraterrestrial, he also worked on a wealth of ground-breaking sci-fi films.
Among his work were special effects for 'Alien', for which he also won an Oscar, 'Dune', 'King Kong' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.
Such was the realism of his work, that he was often required to prove that it was not real.
During the making of the film 'A Lizard in a Woman's Skin', its director Lucio Fulci was arrested for animal cruelty over a scene in which a dog is mutilated.
He was only spared from a two-year prison sentence when Rimbaldi provided his props in court to prove that real animals were not harmed.
