Oscar-winning visual effects artist and Sony Pictures Imageworks founding member Tim McGovern, whose many studio feature credits include Total Recall, First Man and Dunkirk, passed away on Saturday (March 30) in his sleep at age 68. The news of his death was announced by his wife, Reena NeGhandhi, on Facebook.His wife, Reena NeGandhi, posted the news of his death on Facebook.
“Today is the saddest day of my life,” she wrote. “My Husband Tim McGovern, an Oscar winner for visual effects in 1990’s for Total Recall and several more awards from the VES has died today. He passed away in his sleep.”
A CG effects pioneer, McGovern was a board member of the Visual Effects Society for many years. He served as the board’s vice chair as well as founding co-chair of the VES Awards committee. Last October, he received the VES Founders Award and became a lifetime VES member as well.
Kim Davidson, Visual Effects Society board chair noted, “We were saddened and shocked by the sudden news of Tim’s untimely passing. Tim and I have been VES members and colleagues for many years, and his passion and loyalty to the Society were exemplary. Tim’s insights, expertise and volunteer leadership have been key to our global expansion, and he will be terribly missed by us all. Our thoughts are with Tim’s friends and family and all who knew him.”
McGovern was born on June 25, 1955 in Chicago. He double majored in photography and graphic design at the University of Illinois in Chicago and received a doctorate from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2001.
He worked at Robert Abel and Associates in the early 1980s, and became a systems programmer for the 1982 classic Tron. He went on to collaborate on several Clio-award-winning vfx-driven commercials included “Sexy Robot.” He was a CGI director for Total Recall in 1990), for which he won an Academy Award. He was a founding member of Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he worked on Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation (2015), Dunkirk (2017), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Men in Black: International (2019) and Jungle Cruise (2021). His other credits include The Last Action Hero (1993), Look Who’s Talking Now (1993), As Good as It Gets (1997), and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023).
More recently, he worked at DNEG Mumbai and served as chief creative officer at Whisper Pictures, a company that develops and produces animated family films.
McGovern had also written a film and novel that his wife plans to get made in the future. She wrote, “He had so many life dreams for his film and now he’s gone,” she wrote. “He’s left it in my hands to make it happen now. I have no idea how I will live without him. He took such good care of me and he was my world. May his soul rest in peace.”
You can watch an interview with McGovern at the 2023 VES Awards below:
Source: Hollywood Reporter, Facebook
