Tom Woodruff, Jr.

Tom Woodruff, Jr.
Biographical information
First credit	Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn (1983 Makeup artist)
Further information
Link(s)	IMDb studioadi.com Twitter

Tom Woodruff, Jr. is an actor and special effects artist who has worked on every Alien and Alien vs. Predator film since Aliens. He co-owns Amalgamated Dynamics alongside his longtime partner and friend Alec Gillis.

Alien franchise credits

Creature effects

• Aliens (1986)

The Dragon

• Alien³ (1992)

Cloned Alien

• Alien Resurrection (1997)

Other credits

• Amazing Stories (1986)
• The Monster Squad (1987)
• Alien Nation (1988)
• Leviathan (1989)
• Tremors (1990)
• Death Becomes Her (1992)
• Demolition Man (1993)
• Skyline (2010)
• The Thing (2011)

Biographical information

Personal life

Woodruff was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Much of his early interest in movies and monsters was a result of late-night broadcasts of the now classic Universal monster movies and the motion-stop effects of Ray Harryhausen.

Career

Woodruff with Julian Caldow.

In 1985, Woodruff was working for Stan Winston on Aliens. Woodruff helped sculpt the Alien Warrior head at Stan Winston Studio and touched up paint on the head in the workshop at Pinewood Studios. Shortly after the Warrior costumes were completed and before filming, Tom stayed late after-hours one night, got into costume, and Richard Landon took the first set of photos of a completed Alien, "without even the benefit of covering the suit in slime as intended for the film." Woodruff and Landon found a snowy backdrop outside of their workshop and he "thought it'd make a nice Christmas Card someday". Tom was "more interested in seeing how different body posing could disguise the shape of a man inside the suit than the intended on-screen finished look."

After seeing some of the performances and physiques of some of the performers wearing the Alien suits in Aliens, Tom was motivated to have a talk with Stan Winston that led to playing Gill-man (from Creature from the Black Lagoon) in a cameo appearance in The Monster Squad, their next film.

In 1988, Woodruff, Jr. and co-worker Alec Gills left Winston and founded Amalgamated Dynamics. As Winston was unavailable to work on Alien³, he recommended Amalgamated Dynamics to the producers. There Woodruff, Jr. played a Xenomorph for the first time, as the Runner. He then played the lead Alien in Alien Resurrection, "Grid" in Alien vs. Predator, and the Predalien in Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

Woodruff was nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects in Alien³ (An award he and Gillis later won for Death Becomes Her).