Ray Harryhausen 1920 -2013
Skwigly
When considering its place in the history of art, animation is very much in its infancy. A little over 113 years old, what once was a simple camera trick has become one of the dominating forces in entertainment today. Of course with it being such a relatively recent innovation its history can almost be traced through living memory, a handful of generations separate us from the first people to get behind a camera and make things move. It was the generation after those early animators that realised the potential of animation and translated its capability into pure wonder on the big screen. So it is with particular sadness that the news the passing of Ray Harryhausen, one of the greatest of these pioneers reached Skwigly.
Raymond Frederick Harryhausen was born in L.A on the 29th June 1920. His celebrated career began when he saw King Kong at the age of 13 and soon after began making home movies, masks and all manner of creative things. He would work alongside Willis O’Brien the man who made King Kong move in 1949 on Mighty Joe Young. Between 1949 and his retirement from film making in 1981 he imagined, crafted and brought to life creatures from the dawn of time, ancient myth and from the furthest reaches of space. That spark of creative genius that he was first exposed to on his 13th birthday is alive in all his own works as he took his inspiration from stop-motion and effects pioneers like O’Brien and advanced the field of visual effects and animation to what it has become today. Calling the man who made his own sets, models and rigs before animating whole scenes a pioneer is both fair and accurate.
His filmography comprises of some of the greatest special effects films ever created as well as some of the most memorable creatures (he never called them monsters, they were just misunderstood) from the Allosaurus in One Million Years B.C the terrifying stare of Medusa in Clash of the Titans and the army of Skeletons that battled both Jason in Jason and the Argonauts and Sinbad in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad the fantasy the films of Harryhausen placed the audience in their own world of fantasy and inspired subsequent generations of film makers. Steven Speilberg, Nick Park, John Landis, Peter Jackson, James Cameron and many more all cite the Oscar winner as crucial to their own development as artists.
Although his work may be seen as dated by a few the appeal of his work can still be clearly seen today and the work of the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation works towards preserving that appeal and protecting and restoring over 80 years worth of material. It is a struggle think of people who have advanced an art form quite so much as Ray Harryhausen, its easy to think of people who developed a new technique or film but to think of someone who took something that was still in its infancy and developed it to what we recognise today is extremely rare. In a 2005 interview he said of his own films;
They were considered B pictures because they were made on a tight budget. But we outlived many of the A pictures made at the same time.
One hopes that the influence of Ray Harryhausen will continue to weave its inspirational magic and outlive us all.
Raymond Frederick Harryhausen. Born 29th June 1920, died 7th May 2013