|
Gary J. Tunnicliffe was born on February 27, 1968 in
Brentwood, England. His father is an electrical engineer and his
mother a housewife. His love for horror, which he discovered early
on in his youth, was inspired by his older brother's tales of horror films
and ghost stories and ghost stories. He eventually discovered that
these tales actually exist in literary fiction when he was given a copy of
Bram Stoker's Dracula by a teacher. He was only seven years old at
the time. By the age of nine he decided that horror films were
'where it was at' and was inspired by Peter Cushing's acting that this was
the career for him.
Gary entered the rat
race working first in optics and then in advertising sales. After
being introduced to the magazine Fangoria his course in life
changed as he saw and read about people sculpting monsters and applying
prosthetics. He began gathering information from books and
magazines, learning the artists name and the chemicals and techniques they
used. He began experimenting evenings and weekends with sculpting,
molding, painting and applying make-up or head casting. By the time
he was 20 years old he had built a large portfolio of photographs and even
created some masks for local drama productions.
He sent some photographs to Christopher Tucker,
the only make-up effects artist in England. Two weeks later Gary
received an invitation to visit Tuker's workshop where he explained to
Gary how he could improve his techniques. Correspondence with Tucker
eventually lead Gary to working for Tucker on a stage musical and a
project. Later, he was hired by Bob Keen of Image Animation Company
in Pinewood Studios. He started in September of 1990 working on two
robot suits. He quickly graduated from runner to mold making, to
sculpting to a bit of everything joining the core crew. They created
pieces for commercials including Nintendo, Kellogs and Suntan Oil creating
Bears, Crabs, Robot Suits, etc. Film working including Waxwork 2,
American Cyborg ,
Warlock: The Armageddon , Cyborg Cop,
Hellraiser 3: Hell on Earth ,
Children of the Corn II ,
Candyman as well as bits and pieces including
television animatronic characters and promotional costumes, even a movie
museum.
In 1993 he went to Los Angeles to see producers
about creating characters for a television show. It was a success
and resulted in 3 months of prep and 6 months of shooting in Toronto.
As partners with Bob they opened a facility in the San Fernando Valley
under the Image Animation banner. In 1994 Gary and his then
girlfriend Claire-Jane made the trip stateside.
The next three years were busy and challenging
with hardly any contacts and no knowledge of the local workforce.
For the first time in several years he found himself sculpting, painting
and creating mechanisms for a bunch of shows including
Hellraiser - Bloodline ,
Sleepstalker ,
Last Gasp ,
Halloween - The Curse of Michael Myers ,
Invasion of Privacy ,
Menno's Mind ,
Amanda & The Alien , and
Children of the Corn 4 , just to name a few.
In 1995 he directed his first film,
Within the Rock . It was given a Saturn Award nomination. In
1996 Wishmaster showed up and got him a lot of work including
Blade ,
Twin Falls Idaho and
Candyman 3 .
Over the years he kept busy with lots of
different projects. The last three years has seen Gary stretch his
talents from make-up effects to prop creation, miniatures, vfx
supervision, 2nd unit direction and acting.
Gary J
Tunnicliffe - Official Fan Site
Gary as 'Tommy' in 'Dracula: Legacy'
|
The Host
