Joe Viskocil facts for kids

Joseph Viskocil (born December 21, 1952 – died August 11, 2014) was an American artist who created amazing special effects for movies. He worked on over 80 films from 1974 until 2014. Joe Viskocil helped make some of the most famous movie series look real. He even won an Academy Award for his work on the movie Independence Day in 1996.

Movie Magic: Joe's Career

In 1977, Joe Viskocil helped John Dykstra and George Lucas create the exciting explosions for the first Star Wars movie. This included the huge explosion of the Death Star at the end of the film. He returned in 1980 to make more cool explosions for The Empire Strikes Back.

For the next 30 years, Joe worked on many other popular movies. These included Ghostbusters, Batman, and Star Trek. He was known for making things blow up in movies in a very realistic way.

Winning an Oscar

Joe Viskocil was the pyrotechnics supervisor for the 1996 film Independence Day. This meant he was in charge of all the explosions and fire effects. For his amazing work on this movie, he won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. He shared this award with Volker Engel, Douglas Smith, and Clay Pinney.

One of his big projects for Independence Day was helping to build a miniature (small model) of the White House. This model was 15 feet wide and 5 feet tall. Joe and another supervisor, Mike Joyce, made it so it could be destroyed in the movie.

About Joe's Life

Joe Viskocil passed away on August 11, 2014, in Los Angeles, California. He was 61 years old.

Movies Joe Worked On

Joe Viskocil worked on many films. Here are some of them:

Awards Joe Viskocil Won

Joe Viskocil was recognized for his amazing work in movies.