RIP Ray Harryhausen

[Trav Le Bleu]

Master of special effects in the days before CGI. A cinematic legend!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22441567

 

 

 

Visual effects master Ray Harryhausen, whose stop-motion wizardry graced such films as Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of the Titans, has died aged 92.

 

The American animator made his models by hand and painstakingly shot them frame by frame to create some of the best-known battle sequences in cinema.

 

His death in London was announced in a statement posted on Facebook by the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation.

"Harryhausen's genius was in being able to bring his models alive," it reads.

 

"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."

 

Born in Los Angeles in June 1920, Raymond Frederick Harryhausen had a passion for dinosaurs as a child that led him to make his own versions of prehistoric creatures.

 

Films like 1925's The Lost World and the 1933 version of King Kong stoked that passion and prompted him to seek out a meeting with Willis O'Brien, a pioneer in the field of model animation.

 

Harryhausen went on to make some of the fantasy genre's best-known movies, among them Mighty Joe Young, One Million Years B.C. and a series of films based on the adventures of Sinbad.

 

He is perhaps best remembered for animating the seven skeletons who come to life in Jason and the Argonauts, a sequence which took him three months to film.

 

 

 

Decent innings though.

[21st Century Fox]

[sphericalfox]

doffs animated cap.

 

Fella inspired a multitude of recent and modern talents.

 

I remember being blown away by his films when I was a young lad. Sinbad sticks out as leaving an impression on me.

[rico]

Loved his films when i was a kid,Mysterious Island and Jason & The Argonauts will always be classics to me

 

RIP

[pSinatra]

He taught me everything I know about Greek Mythology

[DennisNedry]

I remember seeing Jason and the Argonauts for the first time as a child, around 7 or 8 years old.

I said to my dad that the skeletons didn't look very real.

He replied 'I'll tell you what son, this was state of the art stuff when I was a kid'

 

RIP, legend.

[I am Rod Hull]

He taught me everything I know about Greek Mythology

 

[Guest Col city fan]

I used to love Jason and the Argonauts..

Like Star Wars really, they were films that were special for their time.

[ozleicester]

Special effects pre computers were an amazing thing, even movie titles etc were works of art that took days/weeks/months to create.

 

the dedication by these people is much forgotten

[ithuriel]

Jason and the Argonauts still pewns every greek mythology movie that followed, RIP.