Carlo Rambaldi Phone Home

Carlo Rambaldi has died at age 86. Shed no tears, he lived a long life and did some amazing work, much of which is burned deep into your cerebral cortex. Just take a look at the video above to see a montage of Rambaldi's best known work.

The Italian FX artist won two Oscars - for his work on ET: The Extra-Terrestrial and his mechanical head puppets for Alien - but perhaps the greatest accolade he ever received was for Fulci's A Lizard In A Woman's Skin. His mutilated dog props were so convincing that Fulci was brought up on charges of animal cruelty, and Rambaldi had to bring the fake dog into court to prove the director's innocence.

Of course, an Italian court also thought that Ruggero Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust was a snuff film and the director was only acquited after the actors showed up to prove they weren't dead. So maybe Italians are just kind of stupid. Still! It's a real honor for an FX maker when an audience can't tell the difference between his work and the real thing.