John Stears (August 25, 1934 – June 28, 1999) was an Academy Award winning special effects genius that created James Bond’s lethal Aston Martin, the Jedi Knights’ light sabers, the endearing robots R2-D2 and C-3PO as well as a host of other ingenious movie gadgets and special effects.

Stears added his inventions and calamities to the first eight James Bond thrillers, won an Oscar in 1965 for Thunderball, and shared a special-effects Academy Award in 1977 for Star Wars. John Stears created some of the most famous scenes in the movies. He blew up the villain’s Jamaican hideout at the end of Dr No (1962), and for Goldfinger (1964), he created Agent 007’s celebrated Aston Martin DB5, featuring bullet-proof windows, revolving licence plates, forward-firing machine guns, a rear oil-slick dispenser and a passenger-side ejector seat.

He also touched off an avalanche for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), built flying cars for the musical film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and the Bond film The Man With the Golden Gun (1974).