Vernon Walker

Active - 1920 - 2020  |   Born - May 2, 1894   |   Died - Jan 1, 1948   |   Genres - Drama, Romance, Comedy

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Biography by AllMovie

Vernon L. "Vern" Walker started out as assistant to cinematographer Fred Jackson in the camera effects department (later known as "special effects") at First National studios. In the early 1930s, Walker moved to RKO Radio, where he was appointed the successor of camera-effects supervisor Lloyd Nechtel. Walker's ordeal-by-fire was the special-effects smorgasbord King Kong (1933); his later projects included Flying Down to Rio (1933), She (1935) and Citizen Kane (1941). Thanks to the expertise of Walker and his brilliant crew, the RKO product contained some of the best special effects and back-projection work in the business: even such minor efforts as the 58-minute Behind the Headlines (1938) had a look of clash and polish. After working on the complicated "parachute jump" sequence in Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941), Walker received the highest accolade of all, a rave review from his peers at American Cinematographer magazine: "His work here is excellent, for although you know it must be a process shot, you are never forcefully reminded of the fact." Vernon L. Walker remained at RKO until his death in 1948.

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