Passages

Amidst all the “stars who died this year” recaps, may I commend to you one Wah Ming Chang, who died 22 December.

One of the three founding members of Project Unlimited in 1956, he and his cohorts did fx, masks, prop, and animations for TV and film, including Tom Thumb, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, and Spartacus.

He was also a key contributor to similar work on The Outer Limits and Star Trek (TOS). In the latter, he is credited with the design work for the phaser (II), the tricorder, and the communicator. He also did creature and costuming work on ST, including the Salt Vampire.

He made masks for the ballet sequence in The King and I, and created the massive head dress worn by Liz Taylor in Cleopatra.

He also sculpted the original various heads for animation of the Pillsbury Doughboy.

He was an Academy Award Winner — sort of — for George Pal’s The Time Machine (woo-hoo!). Among other things, he built the miniature model of the TM, and sculpted the head of the Sphinx. He and his colleagues animated the “time passage” sequence out of the Inventor’s window, as well as the volcanic eruption that destroys the future city. And, of course, there was the famous animated decomposition of a morlock.

The way the credits were submitted, only Chang’s two partners, Gene Warren Sr. and Tim Barr, got actual Oscar statuettes; Chang only got a plaque. While others were irked by this, Chang took it in stride; he had done his job, and that was recognition enough.

In later years, his studio created costumes for ice shows and made television commercials. Since 1970, he’d lived in Carmel, sculpting.

In the pre-CGI era of animation, fx, and miniatures, Wah Chang’s name and work will long remain famous.