Frank Willard Van der Veer (June 2, 1921 – January 7, 1982) was an American optical and visual special effects artist who won (and shared) a Special Achievement Academy Award at the 49th Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects for the film King Kong[2] (1976).
His career spanned over three decades from the 1950s until his death in the early 1980s, having participated in the Hollywood special effects industry with such other films as The Towering Inferno[3] (1974), Killer Bees (1974), Logan's Run (1976), Star Wars (1977), 1941 (1979), Flash Gordon (1980), Clash of the Titans (1981) and Conan the Barbarian (1982).
After the war he began his career in the 1950s working for the Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox special effects departments.
For the television medium, he contributed in the effects of the original Star Trek series (1966) and, in 1978, he was nominated for an Emmy for his work on The Return of Captain Nemo.
His company, Van Der Veer Photo Effects, survived him for 15 years more until it was dissolved on October 4, 1997.