The world has just lost one of the greatest visual effects pioneers of all time with the passing of the great Ray Harryhausen.
Read the full statement after the jump.
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), MYSTERIUOUS
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.
Tributes have been heaped upon Harryhausen for his work by his peers in recent years.
"Ray has been a great inspiration to us all in special visual
industry. The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on,
inspired us so much. Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likely have
been no STAR WARS" - George Lucas.
"THE LORD OF THE RINGS is my ‘Ray Harryhausen movie’. Without his
life-long love of his wondrous images and storytelling it would never
have been made – not by me at least" - Peter Jackson
"In my mind he will always be the king of stop-motion animation" - Nick Park
"His legacy of course is in good hands because it’s carried in the DNA of so many film fans." -Randy Cook
"You know I’m always saying to the guys that I work with now on computer graphics "do it like Ray Harryhausen" - Phil Tippett
"What we do now digitally with computers, Ray did digitally long
before but without computers. Only with his digits." -Terry Gilliam.
"His patience, his endurance have inspired so many of us." - Peter Jackson
"Ray, your inspiration goes with us forever." - Steven Spielberg
"I think all of us who are practioners in the arts of science
fiction and fantasy movies now all feel that we’re standing on the
shoulders of a giant. If not for Ray’s contribution to the collective
dreamscape, we wouldn’t be who we are." - James Cameron
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