Richard Edlund, A.S.C. is a multi-Academy Award-winning US special effects cinematographer. Edlund was born in Fargo, North Dakota and raised in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. After first joining the United States Navy, he developed an interest in experimental film and attended the USC School of Cinematic Arts in the late 1960s. On the strength of a couple of short films, he was picked by John Dykstra to work as first cameraman at the embryonic Industrial Light & Magic on the production on Star Wars for which he shared an Academy Award. Edlund continued to work with Dykstra on Battlestar Galactica but was invited back by George Lucas to work on The Empire Strikes Back. Edlund's considerable technical challenge on this film was to optically composite miniatures against a white back ground resulting in a second academy award. Edlund also did distinguished work for Lucas and ILM on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Poltergeist. In 1983, following the completion of Return of the Jedi, Edlund set up his own effects company, Boss Films, whose credits include Big Trouble in Little China, Die Hard, Ghostbusters, The Hunt for Red October, Cliffhanger, Outbreak, and Air Force One. 

December 6th, 1940 in Fargo (Age 84)