John Coppinger – Sculptor

Biography

John Coppinger was born in Kent, UK in 1947.

At the age of eleven he was awarded a state scholarship to Sevenoaks School; the oldest secular school in the UK founded in 1432. He later studied for a diploma course at Maidstone College of Art, then sculpture at St. Martins School of Art in London. He gained a Diploma in Art and Design in 1970.

John’s fascination with both art and science was perfectly resolved by a first job at the Natural History Museum in London as a scientific sculptor. His work is still on display there today.

John left the Museum for a career in the film industry starting with Jim Henson’s “The Dark Crystal” in 1981. He then went on to work on George Lucas’s Star Wars Trilogy film “Return of the Jedi”, where he was hired to sculpt Jabba the Hutt.

Other movies John has worked on are:
“Greystoke” (1983), “Santa Claus” (1986), “Little Buddha” (1992), “Fifth Element” (1996), “Lost in Space” (1997), “The Mummy” and “The Mummy Returns” (1998 & 2001) as well as the first three “Harry Potter” movies (between 2000 & 2003).

Between feature film projects he continues to work as a freelance sculptor. He has produced sculptures for the National Museum of Natural Science in Taiwan (1987/8). He worked on the BBC television production of “Walking with Dinosaurs” (1998) and later produced various props and models for the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures (2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006).