Tory Belleci

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Tory Belleci
Born	Salvatore Paul Belleci October 30, 1970 (1970-10-30) (age 39) Monterey, California, United States
Occupation	MythBusters (build team), Model maker
Website ToryB.com

Salvatore Paul "Tory" Belleci^[1] (born October 30, 1970 in Monterey, California) is a filmmaker and model maker. He is best known for his work on the Discovery Channel television program MythBusters. He has also worked with Industrial Light and Magic on films such as The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. The Federation battleships and podracers are some of Tory's pieces. He attended San Francisco State University.

Tory Belleci has a long history working with fire and explosives. At an early age his dad showed him how to make a Molotov cocktail. He later built what was essentially a homemade flamethrower. Things got a little out of control when he accidentally lit part of his house on fire.^[2]

Tory has been quoted saying he became interested in the special effects industry after doing a report on movie special effects while in high school. In 1994, after graduating from San Francisco State University's film school, he started working with Jamie Hyneman at a small production company. Tory worked as a stage manager, running errands and cleaning the shop, but quickly moved up the ranks. A few years later Tory started work at Industrial Light and Magic. Tory worked for ILM for eight years as a model builder, sculptor, and painter.^[3] Tory began work on Discovery Channel's "Mythbusters" in 2003 doing work behind the scenes and in the second season was featured as part of the show's build team and got on screen credit in the show's third season. In 2005 Tory convinced fellow ILM veteran Grant Imahara to join the show.

Tory worked on the Matrix trilogy, Van Helsing, Peter Pan, Starship Troopers, Galaxy Quest and Bicentennial Man.^[4]

One of his short films has appeared on the Sci-Fi Channel and in the Slamdance Film Festival.

He is often considered by fellow MythBusters Kari Byron and Grant Imahara to be more of a daredevil and as such often performs the more dangerous stunts when testing a myth. These have included testing the Red Flag to a Bull myth, testing the myth that a human's tongue will instantly stick to a frozen pole in the Snow Special Episode and the myth "can you stay underwater for an hour while breathing through a dart tube?" (Ninja Movie Myths 2). One of his more popular stunts, shown several times on the show, was to attempt to jump a toy wagon on a bicycle, only to flip over and land on his face. As a result of this, he is often involved in comical accidents while testing myths, although none to date have caused lasting injuries.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ California Births 1905-1995
2. ^ Jeff Sullivan (28 April 2008). "Busted: Discovery show hosts reveal truth behind myths". The Good 5 cent Cigar. http://www.ramcigar.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=01c42f25-074e-448a-bb6d-9d354da0c73f&page=2. Retrieved 4 July 2009. 
3. ^ "Tory: Bio: Mythbusters". Discovery.com. http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/meet/tory-belleci.html. Retrieved 4 July 2009. 
4. ^ Busted (Mythbusters book) p.12

External links

• Official Website
• Cast bio on MythBusters official site
• Tory Belleci at the Internet Movie Database
• Tory Belleci at MySpace

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