David W. Allen was an American artist who made things move in movies and TV shows. He used stop motion, like puppets, to create special effects. He worked on movies like The Howling, Twilight Zone: The Movie, and Young Sherlock Holmes. He even got nominated for an award for his work on Young Sherlock Holmes.
He also worked a lot with a producer named Charles Band on movies like Dolls, Puppet Master, and Demonic Toys. David did animation for a student film called Equinox, which later became a full-length movie called The Beast.
One of his famous works is the monster in the funny movie Flesh Gordon. David also made a cool Volkswagen commercial in 1972 with King Kong and a big car. However, the commercial was only shown once on TV because the car company didn’t like the idea of an ape driving their car.
David teamed up with his friend Jim Danforth for a horror movie called The Crater Lake Monster and a sci-fi film called Laserblast. They even organized an event in 1983 to celebrate 50 years since King Kong was released.
David worked on many projects, like Batteries Not Included and Young Sherlock Holmes, which got an Academy Award nomination in 1985. His company, David Allen Productions, did special effects for the strange movie Freaked in 1992.
Sadly, David Allen passed away in 1999 from cancer. Before he died, he was working on a movie called The Primevals. His company still does effects for movies, now led by Chris Endicott.
In his personal life, David got married in 1995 but later got divorced in 1998. There was also a bit of drama with his ex-girlfriend getting into trouble with the law, but that’s another story.