RIP Ray Harryhausen

Touraxus_sl

shitlord
111
0
Guy made some great effects for the times.
The stuff he did in the original clash of the titans was pretty impressive back then.





"Raymond Frederick Harryhausen
Born: Los Angeles 29th June 1920
Died: London 7th May 2013.

The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray?s influence on today?s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK?s own Nick Park have cited Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations.

Harryhausen?s fascination with animated models began when he first saw Willis O?Brien?s creations in KING KONG with his boyhood friend, the author Ray Bradbury in 1933, and he made his first foray into filmmaking in 1935 with home-movies that featured his youthful attempts at model animation. Over the period of the next 46 years, he made some of the genres best known movies ? MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949), IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955), 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957), MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961), ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966), THER VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969), three films based on the adventures of SINBAD and CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981). He is perhaps best remembered for his extraordinary animation of seven skeletons in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) which took him three months to film.

Harryhausen?s genius was in being able to bring his models alive. Whether they were prehistoric dinosaurs or mythological creatures, in Ray?s hands they were no longer puppets but became instead characters in their own right, just as important as the actors they played against and in most cases even more so.

Today The Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation, a charitable Trust set up by Ray on the 10th April 1986, is devoted to the protection of Ray?s name and body of work as well as archiving, preserving and restoring Ray?s extensive Collection.
 

Zhaun_sl

shitlord
2,568
2
Sadness.

I loved his special effects, they kind of defined an era of special effects and movie making, especially for the more "out there" genres like sci-fi and fantasy.

Really many of those films listed are like a "best of" in their eras and genres and had big impact on them, even arguably to this day.

A quite impressive man, to me at least.
 

PosterOfStuff_sl

shitlord
139
0
No sadness here he had a good run of 93 years ! And the guy accomplished a lot.

Might just go and celebrate his life by re-watching Sinbad and Clash of the Titans on the weekend.
 

OU Ariakas

Diet Dr. Pepper Enjoyer
<Silver Donator>
6,959
19,066
Goodnight, young prince.

rrr_img_23837.jpg



In all seriousness, the original Clash of the Titans was a defining movie in my childhood. I will never forget Ray nor the creatures he brought to life.

rrr_img_23837.jpg
 

Lithose

Buzzfeed Editor
25,946
113,035
For me, it was Jason and the Argonauts--my parents had a copy and I watched it just about 3 times a week when I was really young. I loved all the special effects in that movie.
 

Charles_sl

shitlord
228
0
Ah darn, that's too bad. I've seen a lot of his work and it was all awesome but Medusa from Clash of the Titans is especially good, I can still see my little brother freaked out over her. That was really good, the snakes and her tail moving around, her face. So skillful.
 

Chukzombi

Millie's Staff Member
71,639
212,862
i saw a documentary about him recently and every single one of his films was like watching a piece of my childhood. although stop motion photography is an obsolete art in this day and age you have to respect the work that went into making those early film effects. any normal person would lose their shit trying to get it perfected the way he did.

RIP