Art director and production illustrator George Jenson died at the age of 87 due to melanoma cancer on 25 May in Henderson, Nevada. Born on 24 June 1930 in Calgary, Alberta, Jenson moved to Los Angeles with his family at the age of six. After serving with the US Army in Germany during the Korean War, he attended the Art Students League in New York City on the GI Bill.
Jenson’s career began in 1964 as a production illustrator/storyboard artist at 20th Century Fox Studios, where he worked on Irwin Allen’s series Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants. He later moved to Filmation Associates as a layout artist and illustrator on the animated TV series Star Trek, Mission: Magic, Lassie’s Rescue Rangers, and My Favorite Martian.
Jenson’s credits include sci-fi classics Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and several animated series. As a production illustrator and VFX art director, he has worked on Dune, Poltergeist II, The Boy Who Could Fly, Big Trouble in Little China, Leonard Part 6, Vibes and Masters of the Universe. He was the art director on Everybody’s All-American, production designer on Solar Crisis, and served as a production illustrator/storyboarder on The Rocketeer, Terminator 2, Thinner, The Perfect Storm, Doctor Dolittle 2, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and Phantom of the Opera to name a few.
He retired in 2003 and is survived by his wife, Susie, and three children, Karen, Eric, and Brian Jenson, from previous marriages.