Trivia

His uncle was noted serial director Spencer Gordon Bennet. He hired Dunn as an assistant cameraman on The Green Archer (1940). When Pathe moved its serial unit to Hollywood, both Bennet and Dunn made the move.

He was regarded as the master of the optical printer. He made refinements to the optical printer and developed techniques for its use in special visual effects.

In 1946, while still at RKO, he established his own independent special effects company, Film Effects of Hollywood. The company specialized in optical effects and optical printing services. including adapting foreign film standards to U.S. standards and the handling of large format films.

He was a member of the American Society of Cinematographers. For a quarter of a century he was on the society's board of directors. He also served stints as the treasurer and even their president.

He became a First Cameraman (Director of Photography) on one of the last silent serials, Queen of the Northwoods (1929), co-directed by his uncle, Spencer Gordon Bennet.

He developed and built one of the first zoom lenses.

He built one of the first optical printers using a Mitchell camera and a projector mounted on a heavy lathe bed.

He was assigned by RKO to teach a novice director named Orson Welles about the optical printer. The more that Welles learned about his capabilities with the device, the more changes he demanded for shots that had already been filmed for Citizen Kane (1941).

As the head of RKO's Optical Effects Department, and then head of the entire Special Effects Department, he worked on virtually all RKO-produced films, usually without on-screen credit.

In the 1970s he bacame a noted lecturer on his career. One of his gigs included a presentation at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

During the Great Depression, Pathe failed and went into receivership. Dunn supported himself by working as a musician and in the reduced position as a camera operator. He received a short-term assignment at the Photographic Effects Department at a new studio, RKO Radio. This job, which was intended to last for less than a week, became a career and he remained with the company until it ceased production in 1957. At RKO he became the head of the Optical Effects Department and later the entire Special Effects Department.

In the first year of World War II, as the leading expert on optical printing, Eastman Kodak approached him about the need for optical printers in the photographic units of the armed forces. Together with his associate Cecil Love, he designed an optical printer that was built by the Acme Tool and Manufacturing Company of Burbank. This became the Acme-Dunn Optical Printer, the first commercially available optical printer.

When RKO ended production, he expanded his own company, Film Effects of Hollywood, by leasing RKO's special effects department. This enabled him to provided even greater special effects services to other producers.

In the final weeks of his life, he was at work on a digital system for exhibition.

He shot the famous RKO Radio Pictures logo.

In the early 1970s, he consented to a live television interview in a city where he was about to give one of his lectures. It became apparent that the interviewer thought that "special effects" meant "sound effects."

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has named a theater after him. The Linwood Dunn Theatre is part of the Pickford Center located at 1313 North Vine Street in Hollywood.

Avid inventor, was working to develop 3D system for American television, up until his death.

He became a second cameraman on Hawk of the Hills (1927). It was his job to shoot the negatives used for the foreign versions. His duties expanded to aerial cameraman and various special effects camera techniques.

He became a founding member of the International Photographer's Guild in 1928.

His first job in the industry was a projectionist for the American Motion Picture Corporation in New York in 1923.

In 1985, he sold his company, Film Effects of Hollywood, and "retired." He continued to give lectures and serve as a consultant on domestic and international productions.

Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, (SMPTE). Active member.

Had been a member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 1950. Served as President from 1977 to 1988.