Arts & Entertainment
Pittsburgh-Area Native Wins Fifth Academy Award
This visual effects artist has worked on some of the famous movies of all time. He claimed another statue at the awards ceremony on Sunday.
HOLLYWOOD, CA — Pittsburgh-area native Joe Letteri won his fifth Academy Award for Best Achievement in Visual Effects Sunday at the 95th Oscars ceremony.
Letteri, 66, who hails from Aliquippa, Beaver County, captured the honor for his work in "Avatar: The Way of Water."
He previously won Academy Awards for his contributions to some of the biggest hit movies in recent years: "Avatar," "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," and "King Kong."
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According to his Internet Movie Data Base biography, he created Gollum for "The Lord of the Rings" movies; the Na'vi in "Avatar," Ceasar from the "Planet of the Apes" series and dinosaurs from the "Jurassic Park" franchise.
"He has developed many techniques that have become industry standards for creating photorealistic digital effects," the biography states. "This includes co-developing the subsurface scattering technique that brought Gollum to life and pushing the development of large-scale virtual production."
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