Biography

Kit West was born on June 2, 1936 in Wandsworth, London, England, UK. He was an actor and cinematographer, known for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and DragonHeart (1996). He died on April 16, 2016 in London, England.

West was responsible for the "old school" mechanical effects on Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Return of the Jedi (1983). On the latter, he oversaw all the robots, including the radio-controlled R2-D2, and received a BAFTA award. West shared the visual effects Oscar for Raiders with Richard Edlund, Bruce Nicholson and Joe Johnston.

When the first Star Wars movie was released, the special effects done by ILM set a new standard. The people responsible for these effects won many awards over the years, including an Oscar for Raiders of the Lost Ark and a BAFTA for Return of the Jedi. One of the people that won these two awards is effects wizard Kit West, who was responsible for the mechanical effects in both movies. During his career -that spans five decades- he has worked on many popular movies including Dune, Stargate and Young Sherlock Holmes.