Biography:
From Bob Cuff:
“Ray Caple was already working as Les Bowie’s Matte Artist and had been trained by him from an early age. He was a gifted painter and modeller and did his own camera work. Many mattes from Bowie’s were painted and put together by Ray. Unfortunately, Ray died from illness in about 1989(?). I shared all the matte work at Bowie’s with Ray.”
From Martin Body:
“I worked with Ray Caple on ‘Battle of Britain’ and later on some commercials, when he did a number of paintings for Peerless Camera Co., where I currently work.
Ray combined them on his own camera set up, helped by his partner, who was a pretty good matte painter in her own right.s.
Ray Caple’s tragic death in, I think, the early nineties, came as something of a shock. Some months before that, a Moy Head (a particularly heavy camera mount) dropped on his foot, causing severe damage. This was obviously very painful and the painkilling medication he was on unfortunately masked a growing stomach ulcer, which burst and he died.
I first worked with Ray on ‘Battle of Britain’ in 1969, at a company called Lowndes Film Technical Services Ltd. The company was owned by Harry Saltzman and run by Ray. I believe that Wally Veevers had an interest in it too.
After Lowndes Film Technical Services folded in 1970, we all went our separate ways. Ray worked as a freelance matte painter after that. I didn’t see him for many years, then Peerless Camera Company used him to do a number of matte paintings on commercials. That would have been in the early 1990′s and he carried out all the painting and camera work at his premises in Maidenhead.”
Gallery: Some samples of Ray Caple matte paintings.
A man for all seasons (1988)
Spies like us (1985)
Treasure Island (1990)
Filmography:
- Treasure Island (1990) (TV)
- Batman (1989)
- A Man for All Seasons(1988)
- Jane and the Lost City (1987)
- Higlanders (1986)
- Spies Like Us (1985)
- Brazil (1985)
- Jewel of the Nile (1985)
- Forbidden (1984)
- Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984)
- Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983) (TV)
- Time Bandits (1981)
- Chariots of Fire (1981)
- “The Martian Chronicles” (1980) (mini) TV Series
- Alien (1979)
- Circle of Iron (1978)
- Superman (1978)
- Satyam Shivam Sundaram: Love Sublime (1978)
- The Thief of Baghdad (1978)
- The Slipper and the Rose (1976)
- The eagle has landed. (1976)
- Space 1999 (1975-77) TV series)
- Anthony and Cleopatra (1973)
- Tomorrow (1970)
- When Dinosaurs ruled the Earth (1970)
- Battle of Britain (1969)
- Play Dirty (1969)
- Dracula has Risen from the Grave (1967)
- Frankenstein created woman (1967)
- One Million Years B.C.1966
- City under the Sea (1965)
- First Men in the Moon (1964)
- She (1965)
- The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)
- Masque of Red Death (1964)
- The Gorgon (1964)
- Kiss of the Vampire (1963)
- The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)