Robert Legato (born 1956) is an American visual effects supervisor, second unit director, and second unit director of photography.
Raised in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Legato graduated from Ocean Township High School.[1]
He directed the 2016 film Eloise.
He has been nominated for five Academy Awards and has won three. His first win was for his visual effects work on Titanic, his second was for his work on Hugo and his third for The Jungle Book. In 1996, he won the BAFTA award for Best Achievement in Special Effects for Apollo 13, for which he also garnered his first Academy Award nomination. In 2020, he received his fifth Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects for The Lion King.
Prior to his work in film, he was a Visual Effects Supervisor for from 1987 to 1992, and in 1993. His work on the Star Trek franchise earned him three Emmy nominations and two wins, as well as an in-front-of-the-camera appearance on Reading Rainbow for an episode devoted to a behind-the-scenes look at TNG.
Legato is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) and the Visual Effects Society (VES).
| Year | Title | Visual effects supervisor | Second unit director | Second unit director of photography | Director |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Interview with the Vampire | Neil Jordan | |||
| 1995 | Apollo 13 | Ron Howard | |||
| 1997 | Titanic | James Cameron | |||
| 2000 | What Lies Beneath | Robert Zemeckis | |||
| Cast Away | |||||
| 2001 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Chris Columbus | |||
| 2003 | Bad Boys II | Michael Bay | |||
| 2004 | The Aviator | Martin Scorsese | |||
| 2005 | Bewitched | Nora Ephron | |||
| 2006 | The Departed | Martin Scorsese | |||
| The Good Shepherd | Robert De Niro | ||||
| 2007 | The Nanny Diaries | Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini | |||
| 2008 | Shine a Light | Martin Scorsese | |||
| Standard Operating Procedure | Errol Morris | ||||
| 2009 | Avatar | James Cameron | |||
| 2010 | Shutter Island | Martin Scorsese | |||
| A Nightmare on Elm Street | Samuel Bayer | ||||
| 2011 | Hugo | Martin Scorsese | |||
| 2013 | The Wolf of Wall Street | ||||
| 2016 | The Jungle Book | Jon Favreau | |||
| 2019 | The Lion King | ||||
| 2020 | Jason Woliner | ||||
| 2022 | Ambulance | Michael Bay | |||
| Emancipation | Antoine Fuqua | ||||
| 2023 | Air | Ben Affleck | |||
| The Equalizer 3 | Antoine Fuqua | ||||
| 2024 | Kevin Costner | ||||
| Year | Title | Visual effects supervisor | Visual effects coordinator | Visual effects artist | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | The Twilight Zone | 1 Episode | |||
| 1987–1992 | 46 Episodes | 17 Episodes | |||
| 1993 | 18 Episodes | 1 Episode |