Bill Pearson RIP

[Paul Muller]

I was very sad to read today of the passing of modelmaker and all round FX wizard Bill Pearson.

Over a 40-odd year career, Bill contributed miniatures, props and set construction to hundreds of films and TV productions, including Alien, Outland, Flash Gordon, Blakes 7, Doctor Who, various James Bond films, Space Precinct, Moon and of course, Red Dwarf.

He’s best known to Dwarf fans for his work on Series X and Series VIII, but his history with the show went back as far as (at least) Series V, providing set dressing and props for episodes such as Back to Reality and Rimmerworld, as well as the never-realised Red Dwarf movie and Christmas special.

I met him a few times and he was always friendly and incredible generous with his time, and happy to engage with fans and general sci-fi nerds such as myself. His work has and will always be a huge inspiration to me and many others.

If you have a spare hour or so, have a trawl through his portfolio of work, which can be found here: https://bit.ly/2Jc891h – It’s an absolute treasure trove, and includes a lot of rare Dwarf-related pics.

RIP Bill.

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[bloodteller]

He always seemed like a really gentle and friendly guy on the documentaries and such, very sad to see him go. RIP Bill

[Moonlight]

We have him to thank for the fact that Series X’s effects aren’t laughably bad. That’s a shame he’s gone now.

[Stilianides]

Very sad news.

I enjoyed hearing his contributions to the DVDs and I appreciate all of the work that he did on the show.

[Offline]

Lovely guy, he was very funny and informative on the documentaries and I always remember him asking for a bottle of red wine as payment for creating the leaking stasis unit in ‘Only The Good…’ and the producer asking if it was a £5 or £15 bottle of wine and Bill ended up with a crate of the good stuff.

[Author]

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