Biography:
Les Bowie started as scenic artist on Rank Studios at 1946. He saw Percy Day and his assistants executing matte paintings and he thought he could do it as good and probably faster than them. At 1946 he took his chance and became matte painter at Pinewood Studios, where he worked with a young Albert Whitlock who came from Denham Studios at 1949.
At 1950 he left Rank and started his career as full FX artist, doing mattes, miniatures, mechanical effects, etc.
He created his own FX Company, working in most of the Hammer films. At the late 50´s he took Derek Meddings as matte artist assistant, but he soon lef to work at Gerry Anderson TV series. He trained Ray Caple as matte painter from his early teens. During the 60´s he got also Bob Cuff, to help Ray Caple painting mattes, they were responsible for lots of matte work under Les Bowie supervision.
He returned to matte paintings for Superman (1978) for which he earned an Oscar. He passes away soon after his Superman’s work.
Les Bowie with a glass painting from Superman (1978)
Filmography:
- Dracula (1979) (special effects)
- Superman (1978) (creative supervisor of mattes & composites)
- Star Wars (1977) (visual effects) (uncredited)
- Simbad and the eye of the tiger (1977) (Special effects)
- To the Devil a Daughter (1976) (special effects)
- Call Him Mr. Shatter (1976) (special effects)
- The ‘Human’ Factor (1975) (special effects)
- The Lifetaker (1975) (special effects)
- Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974) (special effects)
- “The Boy with Two Heads” (1974) TV series (visual effects)
- Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1973) (special effects)
- The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973) (special effects)
- Holiday on the Buses (1973) (special effects)
- Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972) (special effects)
- Nothing But the Night (1972) (special effects)
- Vampire Circus (1971) (special effects)
- Scars of Dracula (1970) (special effects)
- When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970)(special effects)
- The Assassination Bureau (1969) (special effects)
- Taste the blood of dracula (1969)(special effects)
- Moon Zero Two (1969) (special effects creator)
- Mosquito Squadron (1969) (special effects) (uncredited)
- Attack on the Iron Coast (1968)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (special effects)
- Casino Royale (1967) (special matte worker)
- Rocket to the Moon (1967) (special effects)
- A challenge for Robin hood (1967) (special effects)
- The vengeance of She (1967)(special effects)
- The Mummy’s Shroud (1967) (special effects)
- Frankenstein Created Woman (1967) (special effects)
- Quatermass and the Pit (1967) (special effects)
- The Terrornauts (1967) (special effects)
- They Came From Beyond Space (1967) (special effects)
- One Million Years B.C. (1966) (prologue designer)
- Cul de sac (1966) (special effects)
- Fahrenheit 451 (1966) (special effects)
- The Plague of the Zombies (1966) (special effects) (uncredited)
- The Quiller Memorandum (1966) (special effects)
- The Reptile (1966) (special effects)
- Rasputin the mad monk (1965)(special effects)
- Dracula prince of darknes (1965)(special effects)
- The face of Fumanchu (1965) (special effects)
- The City Under the Sea (1965) (special effects)
- First Men in the Moon (1964) (special effects staff)
- The Evil of Frankenstein (1964) (special effects)
- The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964) (special effects)
- She (1964 )(special effects)
- Nightmare (1964) (special effects) (uncredited)
- Doctor strangelove (1963) (special effects)
- The Gorgon (1963) (special effects)
- Jason and the argonauts (1963) (special effects)
- The Crimson Blade (1963) (special effects) aka The Scarlet Blade
- Kiss of the Vampire, The (1963) (special effects)
- Old Dark House, The (1963) (special effects)
- Paranoiac (1963) (special effects)
- Pirates of Blood River (1962) (special effects)
- Lancelot and Geneviere(1962) (special effects)
- Night Creatures (1962) (special effects) aka Captain Clegg
- Shadow of the Cat (1961) (special effects)
- Curse of the Werewolf, The (1961) (special effects)
- Day the Earth Caught Fire, The (1961) (special effects)
- Dr. Blood’s Coffin (1961) (special effects)
- The damned (1961) (special effects)
- The Phantom of the opera( 1961) (special effects)
- Taste of fear (1960) (special effects)
- The Brides of Dracula (1960)(special effects)
- The terror of the tongs (1960) (special effects)
- Sink the Bismarck (1959) (special effects)
- The mummy (1959) (special effects)
- The ugly duckling (1959) (special effects)
- Swiss family Robinson (1959) (Special effects)
- The hound of the Baskervilles (1958) (special effects)
- The Trollenberg Terror (1958) (special effects) aka The Crawling Eye
- Grip of the Strangler (1958) (special effects)
- Dracula (1958) (special effects) (uncredited)
- Town on Trial (1957) (special effects) (as Leslie Bowie)
- Quatermass II (1957) (special effects)
- X: The Unknown (1956) (special effects associate)
- One Wish Too Many (1956) (special effects)
- The curse of Frankenstein (1956) (special effects)
- Keep It Clean (1956) (special effects) (as Bowie and Margutti)
- The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) (special effects)
- 1984 (1955) (special effects)
- The Damn Busters (1954) (special effects)
- Spaceways (1953) (special effects)
- The master of Ballantrae(1953) (special effects)
- So Long at the Fair (1950) (special effects)
- Oliver Twist (1948) (matte painter) (uncredited)
- The red shoes (1948) (matte painter )(uncredited)
- Great Expectations (1946) (matte painter) (uncredited)
- School for secrets (1946) ( scenic artist)
The full gallery is not available yet, but you can visit the old site:
http://galeon.com/traditionalfx2/LesBowie/bowie-Gallery.html