John Frazier was born on September 23, 1944 in Richmond, California. As a child his family moved to Southern California, USA, where he was raised. He attended Canoga Park High School and attended college at Los Angeles Trade Tech, where he studied high-rise construction and freeway design. In 1963 he began designing special effects props at the Haunted House nightclub in Hollywood, California. The owner recognized him and got him a job on NBC. In 1970 he joined Local 44 and started working special effects for motion pictures. He has been the special effects coordinator on dozens of films, and has been honored with Academy Award nominations for "Twister", "Armageddon", "The Perfect Storm", "Pearl Harbor", "Spider-Man" before finally winning in 2005 for "Spider-Man 2". He has won two CLIO awards and a British Academy Award. He currently resides in Southern California, USA.