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Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects Master, Dies Aged 92

Posted by Soulskill on from the rest-in-peace dept.

New submitter Diakoneo writes "According to the BBC, '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.' Some of my fondest cinematic memories from my youth are from Ray Harryhausen."

8 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. He provided inspiration by Camembert · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The man inspired so many young viewers when these classic movies came out, including a number of kids who later became prominent in the movie industry themselves.

    1. Re: He provided inspiration by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Was he the inspiration for the restaurant "Harryhausen's" in Monsters Inc.?

  2. Tribute to Ray Harryhausen by ElementOfDestruction · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is from the internet, and it's pretty old.

    http://www.malevole.com/mv/misc/tribute/

  3. Re:Wait! by asn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Weekend at Harryhausen's?

  4. Re:In his honor... by iluvcapra · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You put the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts up against the sword-fight with the skeleton pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean and some of it is almost shot-for-shot, it was a pretty strong inspiration.

    Also: Bubo.

    --
    Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
  5. King Kong by __aahgmr7717 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We had one of the 3 armatures from King Kong in our closet for several years.
    My brother, Jim Danforth, knew Ray Harryhausen and did similar puppet animation
    in the '60, such as "When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth" and "The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao".
    Harryhausen was a house hold word in our family.
     

  6. Will be missed by Forthan+Red · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Sad news. I was fortunate enough to meet him back in 1981, and got his autograph. It was at an advance showing of the original Clash of the Titans, where he gave a presentation before the film. He brought some of the original figures used for Jason and the Argonauts, King Kong, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, and other stop-motion classics. Despite all the computer perfection of today's CGI, it will never match the wonder I experienced when, as a kid, I first saw the battle of the skeleton warriors in Jason and the Argonauts.

  7. Re:Stop motion done right by Rakarra · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Stop-motion Jurassic park would have been like CGI Star Wars. Get it, Lucas?

    Jurassic Park was originally going to be stop-motion in wide shots (or really, go-motion like the walkers from Empire Strikes Back) and Phil Tippett was hired to oversee this. The results just weren't what Spielberg was hoping for, and then the CGI dinosaurs started to look amazing...