Born in San Leandro, CA; sometimes credited as Joseph M. Alves, Jr. Joe Alves has designed everything from man-eating sharks and aliens to futuristic, high-tech contemporary, period and western settings. He is educated in art, architecture, drama and motion picture design, and was recruited by Disney Studios' animated special effects department right out of school, later moving to Universal Studios where he had the opportunity to work with Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kramer. His career as a production designer really took off when he met Steven Spielberg and designed his first three films: THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS (1974), JAWS (1975) and CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977). Other notable credits include: (as art director) "Night Gallery" (1970, TV series), "The Psychiatrist" (1971, TV series) and EMBRYO (1976); (as production designer) JAWS 2 (1978), ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981), EVERYBODY'S ALL-AMERICAN (1988), FREEJACK (1992), GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND (1993), DROP ZONE (1994), SHADOW CONSPIRACY and FIRE DOWN BELOW (both 1997) and SINBAD: BEYOND THE VEIL OF MISTS (2000). Alves also worked as an associate producer, second unit director and/or visual consultant on JAWS 2 (1978), STARMAN (1984) and FREEJACK (1992). He directed the 1983 feature JAWS 3-D.  Nominated for Art Direction/Set Decoration 1977: CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND - Art Direction (w. Dan Lomino) 1 nomination