You may not know his name but you sure know his work. Born in Houston Texas in 1960, Steve Johnson has worked alongside some of the best makeup artists in the industry. When starting out, his biggest influences were Dick Smith, Rick Baker, and the grand-daddy of all makeup artists and the influence for nearly every special effects makeup artist ever…Jack Pierce. Upon meeting Rick Baker in the early 80’s Steve showed the effects artist his portfolio and Rick helped him get a job working with Rob Bottin on the movie The Howling. Steve worked on two movies with Bottin before then moving on with work with his hero Rick Baker on American Werewolf in London. There he was part of Baker's team to help turn David Naughton into the ferocious werewolf in one of the greatest transformation scenes ever filmed.
It was Steve Johnson who created the green little ghost Slimer for the movie Ghostbusters in 1984 and said that he modeled the tiny spook after actor and comedian John Belushi. Johnson was also the artist behind one of the other standout ghosts from the movie as he created The Librarian as well. Other films Johnson worked on in the 80’s were Fright Night, Poltergeist 2, and Big Trouble in Little China.
In 1986, Steve started his own effects company called Steve Johnson’s XFX but later renamed it Edge FX where in 1989 he provided the effects for the James Cameron underwater thriller The Abyss. In 1995, Johnson worked on the movie Species where he was tasked with creating the half-alien/ human hybrid Sil. He brought in the very same man who created the space creature in the 1979 horror classic Alien to H.R. Giger to come up with the main design of the female creature with Johnson then turning Giger’s ideas and designs into a physical animatronic creature. Along with the animatronic, he also built a full Sil costume for actress Natasha Henstridge to slip into when called upon.
Steve Johnson’s magic didn’t just grace across the big screen but also on our televisions as well. He worked on the Stephen King mini-series The Stand in 1994 and King's remake take on The Shining. It was on The Shining that Johnson won and an Emmy Award for outstanding makeup effects in a limited series. He has also worked on the Science fiction TV series Stargate SG-1 as well as the reboot of The Outer Limits in 1995. In 2002 Steve worked on another King series with Rose Red and he was also one of the artists on the TV series Monsters from 1989 to 1991. He was also part of the effects team for the TV series Poltergeist: The Legacy and Here Come The Munsters TV movie in 1995.
Steve Johnson’s list of film credits is long as he has worked on over 200 films along with working on TV commercials, and music videos and even adding his talents to crafting effects for theme parks. Heck, Steve Johnson was even a part of movies that never even happened like Superman Lives and a Hulk movie both projects were killed before they could be produced.
Like I said you may not know his name…but you damn sure have seen his work even if you didn’t know it. Here is just a few samples of work by Steve Johnson. Fright Night, Howling 2: Your Sister Is A Werewolf, The Clan of The Cave Bear, Solarbabies, Night of The Demons, Highway To Hell, Returned of The Living Dead 3, Species, Lord of Illusions, The Island of Dr. Moreau and so …so….so many others.
