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IMDbPro

Ray Harryhausen(1920-2013)

  • Visual Effects
  • Producer
  • Director
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Ray Harryhausen
Exclusive interview with perhaps the greatest cinema craftsperson to ever have lived.  This is a slideshow trailer which serves as a preview of the material discussed in the interview.
Play trailer1:50
Ray Harryhausen Interviews (2008)
4 Videos
41 Photos
When it comes to motion picture special effects, there is only one name that personifies movie magic--Ray Harryhausen. From his debut films with George Pal to his final film, Harryhausen imbued magic and visual strength to motion picture special effects as no other technician has, before or since.

Born in Los Angeles, the signature event in Harryhausen's life was when he saw King Kong (1933). So awed was the 13-year-old Harryhausen that he began researching the film's effects work, ultimately learning all he could about Willis H. O'Brien and stop-motion photography--he even contacted O'Brien and showed an allosaur short he made, which caused O'Brien to quip to his wife, "You realize you're encouraging my competition, don't you?" Harryhausen tried to make a stop-motion epic, titled "Evolution", but the time required to make it resulted in it being cut short. The footage he completed--of a lumbering apatosaurus attacked by a belligerent allosaurus--made excellent use as a demo reel, and as a result Harryhausen's first film job came with George Pal, working on Pal's Puppetoon shorts for Paramount. A stint in the army utilized Harryhausen's animation skills for training films.

After World War II Harryhausen acquired over 1000 feet of unused military film and made a series of Puppetoon-flavored fairy tale shorts, which helped him land a job with Willis H. O'Brien and Marcel Delgado on Mighty Joe Young (1949). Although O'Brien received credit for it, 85% of the actual animation was done by Harryhausen. Harryhausen's real breakthrough, however, came when he was hired by Warner Brothers to do the special effects for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953). The film's $200,000 budget meant that Harryhausen would be forced to improvise to get the kinds of quality effects he wanted, and to that end he learned a technique called "split-screen" (rear projection on overlapping miniature screens) to insert dinosaurs and other fantastic beasts into real-world backgrounds. The result was one of the most influential sci-fi films of the 1950s.

From there Harryhausen went over to Columbia and teamed with producer Charles H. Schneer, the teaming becoming synonymous among sci-fi and fantasy film aficionados with top-notch special effects work the remainder of their respective careers. After three sci-fi monster films and work with Willis O'Brien on an Irwin Allen documentary, Harryhausen did the effects work for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), his first split-screen film shot entirely in color, which was highlighted by Harryhausen's mythological monsters interacting with Kathryn Grant, Torin Thatcher's flavorful performance as the villain and the rousing score of Bernard Herrmann.

Because Harryhausen worked alone on his stop-motion animation sequences, the filming of these could often take as long as two years, the most famous example of the kind of patience required being the exciting skeleton sword fight sequence in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) (his most popular film) in which Harryhausen often shot no more than 13 frames of film (one-half second of elapsed time) per day.

The 1960s were Harryhausen's best years, among the highlights being his reunions with dinosaurs in Hammer Films' One Million Years B.C. (1966) and The Valley of Gwangi (1969). His pace slowed in the 1970s, but he produced three of his masterworks during that period: The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973); Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) and Clash of the Titans (1981). It was not until 1992 that Harryhausen finally achieved film immortality with an honorary Oscar, a long-overdue tribute to the one name that personifies visual magic.
BornJune 29, 1920
DiedMay 7, 2013(92)
BornJune 29, 1920
DiedMay 7, 2013(92)
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  • Awards

Photos41

Terry Gilliam, Donna Dixon, Gusti Bogok, Ray Harryhausen, Derek Meddings, and Robert Paynter in Spies Like Us (1985)
Ray Harryhausen in Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan (2011)
Ray Harryhausen in Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan (2011)
Taken with Ray at his house in London with film-maker John Walsh. Posing with the original Kraken from Clash of the Titans.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen

Known for

Spies Like Us (1985)
Spies Like Us
6.4
  • Dr. Marston
  • 1985
Clash of the Titans (1981)
Clash of the Titans
6.9
  • Visual Effects
  • 1981
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
6.8
  • Visual Effects
  • 1973
Mighty Joe Young (1998)
Mighty Joe Young
5.7
  • Visual Effects(uncredited)
  • 1998

Credits

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IMDbPro

Visual Effects

  • Mighty Joe Young (1998)
    Mighty Joe Young
    • (uncredited)
  • Clash of the Titans (1981)
    Clash of the Titans
  • Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
    Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
  • The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
    The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
  • The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
    The Valley of Gwangi
  • Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. (1966)
    One Million Years B.C.
  • Martha Hyer and Edward Judd in First Men in the Moon (1964)
    First Men in the Moon
  • Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
    Jason and the Argonauts
  • Mysterious Island (1961)
    Mysterious Island
  • The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960)
    The 3 Worlds of Gulliver
  • Dal McKennon, Kathryn Grant, Enzo Musumeci Greco, and Kerwin Mathews in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
    The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
  • William Hopper and Joan Taylor in 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
    20 Million Miles to Earth
  • Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956)
    Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
    • (uncredited)
  • It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955)
    It Came from Beneath the Sea
    • (uncredited)
  • The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
    The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

Producer

  • The Pit and the Pendulum (2007)
    The Pit and the Pendulum
  • Ray Harryhausen in Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection (2005)
    Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection
  • The Story of 'The Tortoise & the Hare' (2002)
    The Story of 'The Tortoise & the Hare'
  • Clash of the Titans (1981)
    Clash of the Titans
    • (produced by)
  • Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
    Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger
  • The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)
    The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
  • The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
    The Valley of Gwangi
  • Martha Hyer and Edward Judd in First Men in the Moon (1964)
    First Men in the Moon
  • Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
    Jason and the Argonauts
  • Dal McKennon, Kathryn Grant, Enzo Musumeci Greco, and Kerwin Mathews in The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
    The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
    • (uncredited)
  • The Story of King Midas (1953)
    The Story of King Midas
  • The Story of 'Hansel and Gretel' (1951)
    The Story of 'Hansel and Gretel'
  • The Story of 'Rapunzel' (1951)
    The Story of 'Rapunzel'
  • The Story of 'Little Red Riding Hood' (1949)
    The Story of 'Little Red Riding Hood'
  • The Storybook Review (1946)
    The Storybook Review
    • (uncredited)

Director

  • Ray Harryhausen in Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection (2005)
    Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection
  • The Story of 'The Tortoise & the Hare' (2002)
    The Story of 'The Tortoise & the Hare'
  • The Story of King Midas (1953)
    The Story of King Midas
    • (uncredited)
  • The Story of 'Hansel and Gretel' (1951)
    The Story of 'Hansel and Gretel'
  • The Story of 'Rapunzel' (1951)
    The Story of 'Rapunzel'
  • The Story of 'Little Red Riding Hood' (1949)
    The Story of 'Little Red Riding Hood'
    • (uncredited)
  • The Storybook Review (1946)
    The Storybook Review
    • (uncredited)
  • Guadalcanal (1943)
    Guadalcanal
    • (as Raymond Harryhausen)
  • How to Bridge a Gorge (1942)
    How to Bridge a Gorge
    • (uncredited)
  • Evolution of the World (1940)
    Evolution of the World

Videos4

Ray Harryhausen Interviews
Clip 1:32
Ray Harryhausen Interviews
Ray Harryhausen In Color
Trailer 0:35
Ray Harryhausen In Color
The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal
Trailer 1:34
The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal
Ray Harryhausen Interviews
Trailer 1:50
Ray Harryhausen Interviews

Personal details

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    • Official Site
    • June 29, 1920
    • Los Angeles, California, USA
    • May 7, 2013
    • London, England, UK(undisclosed)
    • 1963 - May 7, 2013 (his death, 1 child)
  • Other works
    Unsold pilot: Did the special effects for a pilot for a proposed adventure series to be called "Gulliver".
  • Publicity listings
    • 8 Biographical Movies
    • 4 Print Biographies
    • 11 Interviews
    • 17 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

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  • Trivia
    George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Peter Jackson all hail his film work as indispensable foundations for their own.
  • Quotes
    I'm another snowball. Willis H. O'Brien started the snowball, then I picked it up, then ILM [Industrial Light & Magic] picked it up and now the computer generation is picking it up. Where it will end, I don't know. Maybe in holography, although I'm not sure I'd like a grotesque monster appearing in 3-D in my living room.
    • Famous for his imaginative stop-motion special effects which are showcased in fantasy films depicting Greek Mythological and Arabian Nights stories.

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