Don Bies

Donald "Don" Bies is a special effect artist and occasional actor who worked in the Star Wars special edition and prequels.

Don Bies was born on April 7, 1961 in Chicago, Illinois.

He began working in the film world for Chris Walas and Chris Walas Inc. in David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) when he was 24 years old. There, he coincided with later colleagues in the Star Wars saga, Jon Berg and Howie Weed

He would continue working in creature effects for Pen Densham's horror film The Kiss (1988).

Bies was with Walas for only one more film, The Fly II (1989), Walas' debut as a director. Bies was a mechanical engineer who did the "creature effects", as they would be known. Then, Bies was hired by Industrial Light & Magic, and has been with ILM since.

After that, he worked in Steven Spielberg's successful Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), his first work with ILM, which would be done at the same time as another ILM production, Ghostbusters 2 (1989).

Bies worked in different science-fiction and fantasy movies needing special effects. He did operating room effects for Robert Lieberman's sci-fi Fire in the Sky (1993) and as model maker for both Mel Smith's comedy Radioland Murders (1994) and Frank Marshall's Congo (1995).

1997 marked the release of Bies' first collaboration with Star Wars, as well as two other of his movies, Paul Verhoeven's Starship Troopers and Disney's Flubber. But, when thinking of Star Wars, we can admire Bies' work as creature and model maker in the special editions of both Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

Bies also makes a cameo as one of the aliens in Return of the Jedi, particularly a Bith: Barquin D'an, the Kloo horn player from the Modal Nodes. He also replaced Jeremy Bulloch as the charismatic Boba Fett for some new scenes.

Bies continued working in science-fiction with Dean Parisot's parody Galaxy Quest (1999). In this same year, he also worked in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, not only as one of the model makers, but also as the puppetteer for spectacular R2-D2. He also makes a small cameo appearance as a mechanic in the pod race boxes.

Being in ILM's list, Bies was a model maker for other blockbusters in 2001 like Spielberg's A.I. and Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor. He also co-directed, co-wrote and co-starred in R2-D2: Beneath the Dome, a mockumentary narrating the career of "actor" R2-D2, which can be seen in the DVD of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

Because, of course, Bies was in Episode II, he was the supervisor of the droid unit, and also repeated as puppeteer for R2-D2. He did appear in the movie, besides of as Artoo: He makes a small cameo in the night club where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker try to find Zam Wessel.

Bies was a professional modelmaker for ILM, so he was chosen for two more movies on 2003: P.J. Hogan's Peter Pan and Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean.

He returned to the Star Wars saga for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, again as droid unit supervisor and R2-D2 puppetteer. He was also the R2-D2 operator, and C-3PO's wardrobe manager, for 2005 mini-series Science of Star Wars.

Currently, Don Bies lives in Petaluma, California, with his wife Anna, who also works for ILM (modelmaker for Episode I and Galaxy Quest, and costume designer for Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II), and their son Ben.

Quotes

 * "The definition of special effects is: Who cares if it's real, as long as it looks cool?"
 * Don Bies