Albert J. Whitlock Jr. (15 September 1915 – 26 October 1999) was a British-born motion picture matte artist best known for his work with Disney and Universal Studios.
Whitlock began his film career as a page at Gaumont Studios in London in 1929, before going on to build sets and work as a grip.
There he served as the head of their matte department, resuming his collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock and many other directors, until retiring from the company in 1985 (though he continued to work on the odd production for a few years afterwards).
Universal loaned out Whitlock and his team to other studios for visual effects work on films including Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, the David Lynch version of Dune, Mame, The Learning Tree and Bound for Glory.
One of his last projects was John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi film The Thing, where he reportedly painted all the shots of the uncovered alien starship, including both distant and close-up viewpoints.