John Vulich

Cast · Director

Born

October 10, 1961 · Fresno, California, USA

Died

October 12, 2016

Birth name

Johnny P. Vulich

Vulich was an immensely talented sculptor and make-up effects wizard whose fertile imagination gave rise to numerous monsters and aliens for creature features and episodic television. He drew much of his early inspiration from Tom Savini with whose crew he initially worked on monster effects for George A. Romero's Day of the Dead (1985). In 1989, Vulich and colleague Everett Burrell struck out on their own and founded Optic Nerve Studios, specialising in the creation, sculpting and fabrication of props and prosthetics, as well as in animatronics. They did some of their best work for television, winning three Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Makeup for Babylon 5 (1993) (Vulich created most of the alien make-up designs for the Minbari, Narn, Drazi and other alien races, imbuing each with distinctive expressions and physiognomies), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) and The X-Files (1993). Vulich's credo was to create make-up that was entirely believable, as original as possible and (in his own words) "avoided the clichés of the genre". After selling Optic Nerve to Glenn Hetrick, Vulich worked for some time as a producer and production manager for the Disney channel.