Keith Short (8 March 1941 – 11 September 2020[1]) was a British sculptor, primarily working within the feature film industry in the UK.
Short has worked on most of the large-scale film productions made in the UK, and helped to create several iconic pieces such as the Batmobile for Tim Burton's Batman, the Ark of the Covenant [1] and the Golden Fertility Idol [2] for Steven Spielberg's film Raiders of the Lost Ark, Emperor Palpatine's chair [3] in Return of the Jedi and the Tree of the Dead [4] for Sleepy Hollow.
He has been the head of a department of sculptors on many films including Oliver Stone's Alexander, The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Mortal Kombat, The Fifth Element, The Princess Bride, Willow, Highlander and Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.
Short studied sculpture at Wolverhampton College of Art and moved to London where he began his career as a stone carver and lettering artist.
His early work includes ornate finials for the Henry VII chapel,[5] Westminster Abbey and a relief panel,[6] cast into bronze, of the former Waterloo Bridge, now sited beneath Hungerford Bridge, London.