Apparently smuggled into America in a potato sack, EMIL KOSA JR. rose to become head matte painter at 20th Century Fox. Like his AGONY AND THE ECSTASY (1965) Paramount colleague Jan Domela, Kosa Jr. is also credited for creating the famous Fox ‘Searchlight’ logo.
Kosa grew up making mural paintings with his father and doing California Scene Paintings, but earnt a living in Fox’s matte department for films like THE ROBE (1953) (Fox’s first CinemaScope presentation), THE VIRGIN QUEEN (1955) and THE LOST WORLD (1960)
Eventually Kosa would win an Visual Effects Oscar for supervising Fox’s epic CLEOPATRA (1963), as the notoriously expensive film extended to large glass paintings for the ancient city of Alexandria
One of Kosa’s final mattes is one of the most famous shots in cinema, the sunken Statue of Liberty from PLANET OF THE APES (1968). Kosa’s detailed destruction of this landmark sunk in the film’s legendary twist, although he would sadly die a few months after the films release.
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