Ken Pepiot
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Ken Pepiot | |
|---|---|
 Pepiot with his wife in 2016 | |
| Born | Kenneth Dale Pepiot April 4, 1943 |
| Occupation | Special effects supervisor |
| Years active | 1976–2005 |
Kenneth Dale Pepiot (born April 4, 1943[1]) is an American special effects supervisor. Specialist in pyrotechnics and special effects, he participated in more than forty films between 1976 and 2005. He worked on Carrie,[2] Scarface,[3][4][5] Beverly Hills Cop[6] and Planet of the Apes.
Kenneth Dale Pepiot, a native of Ohio, is a descendant of Pierre Joseph Aimé Pepiot and Marie Célestine Pequignot,[7] immigrants who arrived from Franche-Comté, France, in 1836.[8]
Pepiot entered the industry in 1976 as assistant special effects on Brian De Palma's Carrie.[9] He went on to serve as special effects director on the NBC miniseries Beulah Land (1980)[10][11] and as special effects supervisor on The Right Stuff (1983).[12]
One of his most notable contributions is his work on Scarface (1983), where he and Stan Parks co-invented a gun-synchronizer device that aligned firearm triggers with the camera shutter, ensuring muzzle flashes were reliably captured on film. Cinematographer John A. Alonzo noted that this eliminated costly post-production rotoscoping, while director Brian De Palma highlighted its effectiveness in the film's climactic shootout sequences.[13][14]
Nominations
- 1991: Nominated for the Saturn Awards (alongside Rick Baker and Dennis Michelson) for Gremlins 2: The New Batch
- 2000: OFTA Film Award nomination for Cast Away