Jeff Olson, a veteran visual effects producer and modelmaker who spent a quarter-century at Industrial Light and Magic and worked on projects including Star Wars prequel The Phantom Menace, Star Trek films and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, died June 21. He was 77.
ILM confirmed his passing in an Instagram post, writing in part: “His career spanned momentous change in the art form and industry, and no matter the techniques employed on a given show, Jeff was always committed to the team, leading his crews with humor and kindness.”
Olson joined Industrial Light + Magic in 1985 and worked as a modelmaker on such films as Willow, Howard the Duck, Ghostbusters II, Back to the Future III, Die Hard 2 and Robert Zemeckis’ pioneering live-action/animation hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He was a model supervisor on Ron Howard’s 1991 firefighter drama Backdraft and in similar roles on Star Trek: Generations (1994) and Congo (1995).
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His first credit as VFX producer came on the 1996 sequel Star Trek: First Contact, and he would have that title on more than a dozen ILM films including George Lucas’ 1999 blockbuster Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (he also had an unbilled cameo as a pod race spectator in the pic), Lawrence Kasdan’s Dreamcatcher (2003), Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Brad Silberling’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), Wolfgang Petersen’s Poseidon (2006), Brett Ratner’s Rush Hour 3 and J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009).
Olson also worked as a VFX producer on M. Night Shayamalan’s Signs (2002) and was a stage producer on Gore Verbinski’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007), among other projects..
After leaving ILM in 2009, Olson joined Polygon Entertainment as a VFX producer, working on films including Tidal Wave (2009) and Priest (2011) and on commercials. His final big-screen credit was as visual effects manager on Michael Bay’s juggernaut Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011). That film joined Phantom Menace in the exclusive clubs of films that grossed more than $1 billion worldwide.
Olson is survived by his wife, Kathleen, and their two children.
