'Alien' creator Giger dies at 74

Swiss surrealist designer Hans Ruedi Giger, who won an Oscar for the monster he created for Ridley Scott's "Alien", has died, a museum dedicated to his work said Tuesday. The HR Giger Museum in the central Swiss village of Gruyere confirmed that the 74-year-old artist had died, but provided no further details. Swiss public broadcaster SRF meanwhile reported that Giger had died Monday afternoon in hospital from injuries sustained in a fall, citing sources close to his family. Born on February 5, 1940 into a chemists family in the small eastern Swiss town of Chur, Giger moved to Zurich in 1962 to study architecture and industrial design. He quickly turned to art, producing first mainly ink drawings and oil paintings that formed the basis for his first solo exhibition four years later. But it was his discovery of the airbrush that led to the unique freehand painting style that characterises many of his most famous works. His distinctive style shot to global fame when he created the "Alien" for Ridley Scott's 1979 iconic film, with help from "ET" creator Carlo Rambaldi. The nightmarish skeletal monster, with its elongated metallic head and mouth filled with vampire-sharp teeth, earned Giger an Oscar in 1980 for the Best Achievement in Visual Effects. The terrifying costume, which was worn to great effect by an actor in the film, was reportedly sold at auction about a decade ago for $126,000. His designs were also centrepieces in a range of other well-known films, including "Poltergeist II", directed by Brian Gibson, David Fincher's "Alien3", and Roger Donaldson's 1995 horror movie "Species". The artist also gained international recognition for his often dark and demonic Giger sculptures, as well as for his paintings and furniture. In 1998, the HR Giger Museum opened in the Swiss town of Gruyere, becoming home to the biggest collection of his works. The museum, run by the artist's wife Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger, also houses examples from his vast private art collection, counting works by the likes of Salvador Dali, Dado and Friedrich Kuhn. In recent years, a number of international museums, including in Paris, Prague and Vienna, have also presented retrospectives of the artist's work. Always eager to make his dark, biomechanical world come to life, the artist has also modelled several so-called "Giger Bars", where patrons are immersed in the atmosphere seen in "Alien" and other films he worked on. Inside, the chairs are high-backed and skeletal, spinal cords lace Gothic arched ceilings, and head-to-toe sculptures of crying babies cover walls.   The first Giger Bar was opened in Tokyo in 1988, but the artist himself disowned that project following disagreements with the Japanese company that built it. There are two of the bars in Switzerland, one at the museum in Gruyere and one in the town he was born in, Chur.