Rick Porras Producer/Second Unit Director              Full Name: Richard Porras Birthplace: Pal Alto, California, United States of America Birth Date: 7th May 1961 Trivia: During a visit to New Zealand to co-ordinate a new deadline for The Frighteners (1996), he met Peter Jackson and his team for the first time Grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area Attended Stanford University and graduated in 1988 with a degree in History Had a cameo in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King as a Corsair pirate Was Production Assistant for Steven Spielberg and Frank Marshall of Amblin Entertainment Started work on The Lord of the Rings in 1998 The level of authenticity shown throughout Forrest Gump (1994) is due to his careful research Was not a fan of The Lord of the Rings when growing up. He worked in a library while at Stanford where upon finding three very dusty volumes, he decided to read them Attended Gunn High School in California Got a taste for the film business when he helped make a documentary whilst attending Stanford Originally wanted to be a producer, specifically a production coordinator who organizes budgets for researching historical facts After Forrest Gump he worked on the documentary series, The Beatles Anthology Had a cameo as a gunner in King Kong (2005) In 1991 due to a fellow Stanford student, he was given a job as a buyer by Filmline International; it included such duties as viewing films for sale, reading screenplays and attending international festivals Was recommended to Robert Zemeckis for whom he worked for 8 months and was then assigned to assist in making The Public Eye (1992) and Death Becomes Her (1992) Was the third unit director for The Lord of the Rings for about 15 weeks, one of the scenes he filmed was the battle between Gandalf and Saruman Notable Projects: Contact (1997) The Frighteners (1996) Forrest Gump (1994) Death Becomes Her (1992) Current Projects: The Red Robin (2012) Mi America   < <Back to crew biographies index