American film special effects artist
Is the first special effects artist to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6764 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Muren handled the flying-bicycle effects in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial .
Muren worked early on as a camera operator and effects supervisor for educational films and Pillsbury and Green Giant commercials.
His parents advised him to major in business at Pasadena City College and California State University at Los Angeles, where he received an A.A. degree. But in his first year in college, Muren created a 16-millimeter science fiction film, "The Equinox." The movie was picked up by a distributor, who added 40 minutes to it, blew it up to 35-millimeter, and released it; Muren made back his $8,000 investment, and the movie is now known as Equinox .
His parents, Elmer Ernest Muren and Charline Louise Muren, gave him his first camera, a $10 Keystone eight-millimeter, when he was 10. He practiced making movies with his friend Rick Baker.
Member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 1989.
