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Clay Pinney (6 December 19401 November 2022; age 81) [1] was an Academy Award-winning special effects artist who worked on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

According to the Internet Movie Database, he was a special effects foreman on Star Trek. This has yet to be verified, however.

Pinney worked on special effects in Hollywood films since the early 1980s. His first project was The Man with Two Brains (1983), which featured David Warner, James Cromwell, and Jeffrey Combs. His subsequent films included Brewster's Millions (starring Stephen Collins), Fright Night (starring Chris Sarandon), and The Witches of Eastwick (featuring Carel Struycken).

The first film on which Pinney served as special effects foreman was 1986's Poltergeist II: The Other Side. [2] He then served special effects foreman on Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), starring Christopher Lloyd and Joanna Cassidy. Afterward, he coordinated the special effects for She's Out of Control (1989), starring Catherine Hicks and Wallace Shawn.

Pinney received his first Academy Award nomination as a special effects foreman on Backdraft (1991), for which he also received a BAFTA Award nomination. After supervising or coordinating the effects for such films as Bugsy (1991, featuring Bebe Neuwirth), Toys (1992, featuring Shelly Desai), and The American President (featuring Anne Haney), Pinney received his second Academy Award nomination – and his first win – for supervising the mechanical effects of Independence Day (1996, featuring Brent Spiner, Bill Smitrovich, Frank Novak, Leland Orser, Raphael Sbarge, Carlos LaCamara, Tim Kelleher, Robert Pine, randy Oglesby, Erick Avari, and Tracey Walter). His work on this film also earned Pinney a Saturn Award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, a Universe Reader's Choice Award from Sci-Fi Universe Magazine, and a second nomination from the BAFTA Awards. All of these honors were shared with Star Trek effects veterans Doug Smith and Joe Viskocil.

Afterward, Pinney re-teamed with Independence Day director Roland Emmerich as special effects supervisor and mechanical effects supervisor for Godzilla (1998), which earned Pinney another Saturn Award. Pinney later supervised the effects for such films as The Cell (featuring John Cothran, Jr. and Vanessa Branch), Lost Souls (starring Winona Ryder, Brad Greenquist, and Alfre Woodard), Anger Management, The Matrix Reloaded (featuring Anthony Zerbe), Meet the Fockers, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Next (featuring Jim Beaver and Bonita Friedericy), Rush Hour 3, and Speed Racer.

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