Tom Sullivan is an American

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

s artist and actor, known primarily for his work on

Sam Raimi Samuel M. Raimi ( ; born October 23, 1959) is an American filmmaker. He is best known for directing the Spider-Man (2002 film series), ''Spider-Man'' trilogy (2002–2007) and the ''Evil Dead'' franchise (1981–present). He also directed the 1 ...

's ''

Evil Dead ''Evil Dead'' is an American horror film franchise created by Sam Raimi consisting of four feature films and a television series. The series revolves around the ''Necronomicon Ex-Mortis'', an ancient Sumerian text that wreaks havoc upon a gro ...

'' trilogy—comprising ''

The Evil Dead ''The Evil Dead'' is a 1981 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi, produced by Robert Tapert and executive produced by Raimi, Tapert, and Bruce Campbell, who also starred alongside Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeMan ...

'' (1981), ''

Evil Dead II ''Evil Dead II'' (also known in publicity materials as ''Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn'') is a 1987 American comedy horror film directed by Sam Raimi. It is considered both a remake and sequel (or "re-quel") to the 1981 film ''The Evil Dead'', and wa ...

'' (1987), and ''

Army of Darkness ''Army of Darkness'' is a 1992 American comedy horror film directed, co-written and co-edited by Sam Raimi, co-produced by Robert Tapert and Bruce Campbell and co-written by Ivan Raimi. Starring Campbell and Embeth Davidtz, it is the third i ...

'' (1992)—as well as ''

The Fly II ''The Fly II'' is a 1989 American science fiction horror film directed by Chris Walas. The film stars Eric Stoltz and Daphne Zuniga, and is a sequel to the 1986 film '' The Fly'', itself a remake of the 1958 film of the same name. Stoltz's charac ...

'' (1989). Sullivan was responsible for helping design the ''

Book of the Dead The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ...

'' (or the ''Necronomicon'') in ''The Evil Dead'', and drew the illustrations and symbols seen on the pages of the book.

Career

In the mid-1970s, Sullivan met director

because his girlfriend was attending

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

at the same time as Raimi, along with actor

Bruce Campbell Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor and director. He is known for portraying Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's ''Evil Dead'' franchise, beginning with the 1978 short film ''Within the Woods''. He has starred in many low ...

, screenwriter

Scott Spiegel Scott Spiegel (born December 10, 1957) is an American screenwriter, film director, producer and actor. He co-wrote the screenplay for the movie '' Evil Dead II'' with longtime friend, film director Sam Raimi, with whom he attended Wylie E. Gro ...

, and producer

Robert Tapert Robert Gerard Tapert (born May 14, 1955) is an American film and television producer, writer and director, best known for co-creating the television series '' Xena: Warrior Princess''. He is also one of the founding partners of the film product ...

. Sullivan bonded with Raimi over their mutual interest in

stop-motion animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

, special effects,

claymation Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay. Tra ...

, and

puppetry Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a perform ...

in relation to filmmaking. He joined the crew of Raimi's 1978 short film ''

Within the Woods ''Within the Woods'' is a 1978 horror short film written, directed and produced by Sam Raimi. Raimi drew inspiration from his earlier short film ''Clockwork'', deciding to produce a proof of concept horror film to help build the interest of pote ...

'' as a special effects artist. He would later work on ''

'', Raimi's feature-length remake of ''Within the Woods'', as a special makeup effects artist, where he worked with such materials as

foam latex Foam latex or latex foam rubber is a lightweight form of latex containing bubbles known as cells, created from liquid latex. The foam is generally created though the Dunlop or Talalay process in which a liquid latex is foamed and then cured in a m ...

and

fake blood Theatrical blood, stage blood or fake blood is anything used as a substitute for blood in a theatrical or cinematic performance. For example, in the special effects industry, when a director needs to simulate an actor being shot or cut, a wide v ...

. For the latter, he used coffee as an added ingredient to the traditional fake blood formula of

corn syrup Corn syrup is a food syrup which is made from the starch of corn (called maize in many countries) and contains varying amounts of sugars: glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade. Corn syrup is used in foods to softe ...

and

food coloring Food coloring, or color additive, is any dye, pigment, or substance that imparts color when it is added to food or drink. They come in many forms consisting of liquids, powders, gels, and pastes. Food coloring is used in both commercial food ...

. Sullivan helped rig camera mounts and other contraptions for stunts and some of the film's signature shots. He also helped design the ''

'' (or the ''Necronomicon'') as it appears onscreen, and drew the pen-and-ink illustrations, glyphs, and sigils seen on the pages of the book. After the success of ''The Evil Dead'', which was released in 1981, Sullivan worked as an effects artist and animator on its 1987 sequel ''

''. He then worked as a sculptor on the 1989 film ''

'', before working on special effects for ''

'', the third installment in the original ''Evil Dead'' trilogy, released in 1992. Sullivan's work on the ''Evil Dead'' series was chronicled in the 2014 documentary film ''Invaluable'', directed by Ryan Meade.

Selected filmography

* ''

'' (1978) * ''

'' (1981) * ''

'' (1987) * ''

'' (1989) * ''

'' (1992)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sullivan, Tom Living people Special effects people Visual effects artists American make-up artists Year of birth missing (living people)

Career

Selected filmography

References

Further reading

External links