William Stout

Scarecrow of OZ

William Stout, born in Salt Lake City, UT in 1949. At seventeen he won a full California State Scholarship to the Chouinard Art Institute (California Institute of the Arts) where he obtained his Bachelor's Degree. Stout began his professional career in 1968 with his cover and illustrations for the first four issues of the pulp magazine Coven 13. In 1971 he began to assist Russ Manning on the Tarzan of the Apes newspaper strips and Eisner Award-winning graphic novels. In 1972 Stout joined Harvey Kurtzman & Will Elder on "Little Annie Fanny" for Playboy. In 1973 Stout gained international notoriety in 1973-74 for his 45 "bootleg" record album covers. 1977 saw William Stout's first movie poster, WIZARDS. He ultimately worked on the advertising for over 120 films. In 1977 he became the first American contributor to Heavy Metal magazine and held his first one man show, The Prehistoric World of William Stout. In 1978 Stout began his career in the film industry. He has worked on over 45 feature films, including the Conan films, First Blood, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Walt Disney’s Dinosaur, Masters of the Universe, The Hitcher and Pan’s Labyrinth (Stout’s work contributed to the film winning two of its Oscars and won Stout a 2006 Chesley Award). Return of the Living Dead made Stout the youngest production designer in film history. Stout was the original designer of the Predator and the Men In Black alien “Edgar”. He also contributed to Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige and Frank Darabont’s Stephen King’s The Mist. Stout's dinosaur illustrations and murals have appeared in many publications. In 1981 Bantam Books published Stout's bestselling landmark masterwork THE DINOSAURS-A Fantastic New View of a Lost Era, followed by The Little Blue Brontosaurus (the1984 Children's Choice Award recipient; adapted as The Land Before Time animated feature) and Ray Bradbury's Dinosaur Tales. Eleven Stout paintings were selected for inclusion in the traveling exhibition “Dinosaurs Past and Present” seen by over two million visitors at Smithsonian alone. Michael Crichton acknowledged Stout's work as inspiration for his book Jurassic Park. In 1993, Universal Cartoon Studios chose Stout to design a prime time animated series of Jurassic Park. Stout’s prehistoric paintings and murals are on permanent display at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the San Diego Zoo, the Orton Geological Museum, the Museum of the Rockies, the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science and the Lagoon Discovery Center (Carlsbad, CA). Stout worked for Walt Disney Imagineering from 1986 to 1989 as a conceptual designer, writer and producer for expansions to all their properties. He subsequently continued themed entertainment design for Disney, Universal and Landmark Entertainment Group. In 1995, Steven Spielberg made Stout Senior Concept Designer for GameWorks, a joint gaming arcade project between DreamWorks SKG, Universal and Sega. Since then Stout participated in designing themed entertainment centers such as Michael Jackson’s NeverLand, the Kansas City’s Wonderful World of Oz theme park as well as a Toronto Dinotopia.