It may come as sad news to hear that renowned special effects artist Rick Baker will be retiring from the FX world, but the good news is that he’ll be auctioning off many of his props from his personal warehouse, which will mean we’ll be able to get our hands on some seriously cool things.
Rick Baker is most known for his incredible work creating horror monsters from films such as An American Werewolf in London, The Wolfman and Videodrome, and also his work for Michael Jackson’s dancing zombie Thriller music video. He also brought to life the iconic and realistic humanoid monkeys in Planet of the Apes.
Unfortunately, the reason for his retirement is quite a dire and disappointing one, especially for those who also hold special effects close to their heart: “First of all, the CG stuff definitely took away the animatronics part of what I do,” he told 89.3. “It’s also starting to take away the makeup part. The time is right, I am 64 years old, and the business is crazy right now. I like to do things right, and they wanted cheap and fast. That is not what I want to do, so I just decided it is basically time to get out. I would consider designing and consulting on something, but I don’t think I will have a huge working studio anymore.”
It’s upsetting to hear Baker has left the world of effects, but we have many fantastic and irreplaceable films we can remember him and his mind-blowing work for.
You can check out some of Baker’s available props:
http://www.propstore.com/rickbaker/
Words: Zoe Rose Smith (@ZoeRoseSmitz)
