John Dykstra
Birth name:	John Charles Dyksta
Gender:	Male
Date of birth:	3 June 1947
Place of birth:	Long Beach, California
Awards for Trek:	1 Academy Award nomination 1 Saturn Award
Roles:	Visual Effects Supervisor

John Charles Dyksta, ASC (born 3 June 1947; age 65) is a special and visual effects artist who served as Special Photographic Effects Supervisor on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, garnering an Academy Award nomination and a Saturn Award win for "Best Special Effects." However, he first acquired fame for his photographic effects work on the original Star Wars, for which he won an Academy Award in 1978. He also earned a special Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy that same year for his development of the first computer-controlled camera system, known as "Dykstraflex." After leaving ILM in 1978, he founded the company Apogee, Inc., which he operated for fourteen years.

Dykstra also worked on the effects for Stuart Little (1999) and two Spider-Man films (2002 and 2004, both starring Kirsten Dunst and the second featuring Donna Murphy and Daniel Dae Kim), earning Academy Award nominations for all three. He also won an Emmy Award for his work on the original Battlestar Galactica series. His other credits include Caddyshack (1980, with Ted Knight), Lifeforce (1985, with Patrick Stewart), My Stepmother is an Alien (1988, with Tony Jay, Suzie Plakson, Earl Boen and cinematography by Richard H. Kline), Batman Forever (1995, with Rene Auberjonois and Ed Begley, Jr.), and Batman & Robin (1997, with John Glover).

Star Trek awards Edit

Dykstra has received the following awards and nominations in the various Special/Visual Effects categories:

Academy Awards Edit

• 1980 Academy Award nomination for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, shared with Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich, Robert Swarthe, David K. Stewart, and Grant McCune

Saturn Awards Edit

• 1980 Saturn Award win for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, shared with Douglas Trumbull, and Richard Yuricich

Further reading Edit

• "The Very Special Effects For Star Trek The Motion Picture" (interview), Herb A. Lightman, American Cinematographer, February 1980, pp. 144-145, 174-175, 193-197
• "Star Trekking at Apogee with John Dykstra", Don Shay, Cinefex, issue 2, August 1980, pp. 50-71

External links Edit

• John Dykstra at Wikipedia
• John Dykstra at the Internet Movie Database
• John Dykstra at Battlestar Wiki, an encyclopedia of the Battlestar Galactica sagas
• John Dykstra Biography