Whitlock began his film career as a page atGaumont Studios in London in 1929, before going on to build sets and work as a grip. Trained as a sign painter, he began an intermittent association withAlfred Hitchcock, assisting in the miniature effects forThe Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and then completing all of the signs forThe 39 Steps (1935).
Whitlock began working as a matte artist during World War II. Recruited byWalt Disney, who admired his work, he relocated to the United States in the early 1950s. At Disney, where the head of the Matte Department was fellow-Londoner and near-exact contemporaryPeter Ellenshaw, he successfully mastered the impressionistic approach to matte painting for which he would become known. He remained with the studio for seven years, helping with the design of Disneyland as well as film work, before moving to Universal in 1961. There he served as the head of their matte department, resuming his collaboration with Alfred Hitchcock and many other directors, until retiring from the company in 1985 (though he continued to work on the odd production for a few years afterwards).
His most substantial achievement was the creation of over 70 individual matte paintings for thedisaster filmEarthquake (1974), for which he received anAcademy Award. He won the Oscar again the following year forThe Hindenburg, in which he re-created the great airship and its final voyage. Universal loaned out Whitlock and his team to other studios for visual effects work on films includingGreystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes, theDavid Lynch version ofDune,Mame,The Learning Tree andBound for Glory. In the latter film, Whitlock created the famous Dust Storm with moving cotton-covered disks.
One of his last projects wasJohn Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi filmThe Thing, where he reportedly painted all the shots of the uncovered alien starship, including both distant and close-up viewpoints.[1][2] However, in 2020, Carpenter claimed that Whitlock had left his assistants in the art department to create the matte paintings, apparently because he disliked Carpenter personally. Carpenter claimed that Whitlock took credit for his assistants' work, and told Carpenter "I didn't take a brush to canvas."[3]
In addition to his film work, Whitlock worked on the original series ofStar Trek contributing matte paintings for several first-season episodes, some of which he reworked for use in later episodes. These have been replaced byCGI replicas in theremastered version of the series.
Whitlock was also responsible for the matte paintings inHistory of the World, Part I, and appeared in the movie as a character hawking used chariots. He also produced background mattes for Brooks earlier filmHigh Anxiety, and appeared in that film in a small role as "noted industrialist Arthur Brisbane."
