Legendary Hollywood special effects man Ray Harryhausen passed away in London’s Hammersmith hospital yesterday. He was 92 years old.
The animator and industry pioneer was distinguished for his innovation of new moving picture procedures, as well as a cavalcade of iconic and unforgettable screen creations.
Harryhausen’s mold work and unique beast designs could be seen in such type of movies as ‘Clash of the Titans’, ‘Jason & The Argonauts’, ‘The Valley of Gwangi’ and his ‘Sinbad’ trilogy, among a great many others.
Tributes from a mixture of film industry specialists have poured in over the past 24 hours.
Oscar-winning ‘Wallace & Gromit’ creator Nick Park called him “my mentor and inspiration since my earliest childhood memories”.
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both shiningly referred to Harryhausen as an inspiration, while James Cameron, who’s movies include Harryhausen-esque animal features like ‘Aliens’ and ‘Terminator’ said sci fi filmmakers have been “standing on the shoulders of a giant” due to Ray’s labor.
Peter Lord, of Aardman Animations, also noted that Harryhausen was “a one-guy industry and a one-man genre”.
Himself empowered by ‘King Kong’s special effects creator Willis O’Brien, adolescent Harryhausen started playing with model making and stop-motion work in the 1930’s.
After he enlisted in the U.S Army in 1942, Harryhausen worked on models and artwork for U.S Army magazine ‘Yank’ and acted under upcoming ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ director Frank Capra to produce army-training films.
After the hostilities, Harryhausen was able to work alongside his hero Willis O’Brien, on what could be his breakthrough picture ‘Mighty Joe Young’.
In 1953, Harryhausen’s solo effort ‘The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms’ (an adaptation of a quick tale by Ray’s lifetime friend Ray Bradbury) grew to become a box office accomplishment. Next, the 1955 production of ‘It Came From Beneath the Sea’ marked the best collaboration between Harryhausen and Producer Charles H. Schneer, the man who would succeed with him on his most popular movies over the following three decades.
Harryhausen partnered throughout the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, creating many massively admired creatures and fantastic, dream like adventure sequences. ‘Clash of the Titans’, released in 1981, is considered by many to become his magnum opus.
In 1992, Harryhausen received a special Oscar for his achievements and offerings to the art of cinema.
In 2002, Harryhausen partnered alongside animators Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh to finish ‘The Tortoise & The Hare’, a fairy tale short that Ray had begun in 1952.
In 2007, he executive-produced a short film based on E.A Poe’s ‘The Pit & The Pendulum’.
In his autobiography, Harryhausen says “Looking back over time I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in so many exciting projects, the best of which I assume did mature and develop into full-length feature movies”.
He donated his entire personal collection of models, which consisted of around 20,000 scrupulously hand crafted models, to the National Media Museum in Bradford in 2010. It is here, in addition to within the imaginations of these he continues to inspire, that Ray Harryhausen’s inheritance will live on.
SOURCES:
Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life (Book) by Ray Harryhausen & Tony Dalton
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22441567
http://movies.nytimes.com/person/93588/Ray-Harryhausen/biography
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366063/
Ray Harryhausen special effects supremo dies at 92
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