Guillermo del Toro Pays Tribute to Late ‘E.T.’ Designer Carlo Rambaldi Ahead of Hollywood Walk of Fame Honor: ‘A Worldwide Maestro of Magic’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Guillermo del Toro is paying tribute to Italian special effects master Carlo Rambaldi, who is being honored today with a posthumous Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

Rambaldi, best known for designing the iconic title character in Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” died in 2012 at age 86. He was a three-time Academy Award winner for his work in special effects, having won Oscars for “King Kong” (1976), “Alien” (1979) and “E.T” (1983).

Prior to “E.T.,” Rambaldi had already collaborated with Spielberg on “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” He subsequently worked with David Lynch on the cult classic “Dune.” The long list of top directors whom Rambaldi worked with over the course of his glorious career include Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Marco Ferreri, Mario Bava, Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci, John Huston, Ridley Scott and Oliver Stone.

Rambaldi was born in the village of Vigarano Mainarda, outside the city of Ferrara, in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. The son of a bicycle mechanic, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 1951 and, though he dreamed of becoming an artist, was drawn into the world of cinema when he was asked to create a dragon for a low-budget science fiction movie in 1956.

Del Toro has been known to share a deep passion with Rambaldi for creatures used in contemporary fantasy and horror cinema made through the artisanal use of animatronics.

“Carlo Rambaldi changed the world of special effects, makeup and puppetry,” del Toro says in a video message shared exclusively with Variety. “He brought a know-how and a finesse and a great sense of character and design that can only be described as being the heir of the old world craftsmanship and beauty that comes with a country with a great theatrical tradition and a great artistic tradition.”

Del Toro added: “Without him, it’s absolutely impossible to imagine the daring, beautiful work that is being done now and in the last few decades. He is not only a great Italian effect master, but a worldwide maestro of magic.”

As previously announced, Rambaldi’s Walk of Fame ceremony is taking place on Thursday at 1611 Vine Street in Hollywood, attended by Cinecittà studios president Antonio Saccone, several of Rambaldi’s family members and Matt Winston, son of Stan Winston, the Oscar-winning special effects master who designed the dinosaurs for “Jurassic Park.”