Joe Viskocil was Hollywood's go-to expert when something needed to be blown up on screen. A master pyrotechnician and visual effects artist, Joe's most notable early work was the climactic destruction of the Death Star in 1977's Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. He subsequently worked on the second Star Wars film, the first two films in the Terminator series, films in the Alien and Star Trek franchises, and many more.

When the Ghostbusters (1984) needed to incinerate the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, they called Joe. Blowing up the White House in 1996's Independence Day? That was Joe - and it won his team the Academy Award for Visual Effects.

Joe's television work included effects work on the series Supah Ninjas, and TV movies 10.5: Apocalypse, Atomic Train, Secret Sins of the Father, Passionata, and Flight of Black Angel.

Joe Viskocil passed away on August 11, 2014. He was 61.