The passing of a legend ... RIP Ray Harryhausen
DaWaterRat
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Many are called great, few deserve it, Ray deserved it.
One of the most influential visual effects artists of the Twentieth Century, works ranging from the likes of 'The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms' to 'Clash Of The Titans' and so many more in between.
Seeing 'The Valley of Gwangi' on TV as a kid was my first experience of his work, and it single-handedly spawned a thousand fantasies in my brain and an instant love affair with 'Dynamation'.
Even if Ray Harryhausen is not someone you're particularly aware of, you can be sure the fantasy/sci-fi movie makers that are your favourites were in no small way influenced by him.
But alas, time waits for no man. Earlier today in London, Ray passed away aged 92.
www.rayharryhausen.com
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366063/bio
threads have been merged since they were the same topic
Sad news
Sure is
Wow. RIP.
I don't know how many other DAZers got interested in graphics and animation by watching the amazing work of this legendary gentleman, but there's a whole generation of fantasy film fans that grew up in a world where the release of each new Dynamation film was an event just as major as any Star Wars installment. The last of a trio of young friends, together with Forest J. Ackerman and Ray Bradbury, he literally changed the way science fiction and fantasy were perceived in western culture. A truly sad day.
http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/05/07/ray-harryhausen-dead/
Just saw the news.
His movies were a family favorite when I was growing up.
I just started an almost identical thread in the Commons. They should be merged as well: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/21778/
I'm fortunate enough that I had the chance to meet him and tell him how much his work meant to me growing up, but he truly was one of a kind.
I've never been sure if Seventh Voyage of Sinbad or Jason and The Argonauts was my first Harryhausen film... we saw both in re-release at the theater when I was really young, and all I can remember is that they literally blew me away. Golden Voyage of Sinbad is the first Dynarama epic I can remember every detail of seeing on the big screen, and I alternated multiple screenings of Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger with Star Wars in 1977, thinking I'd died and gone to geek heaven.
Very sad news.
I got to meet him years ago and have join him for lunch when he was the guest of honor at a local science fiction convention I was volunteering at as a kid.
He was very friendly and a pleasure to talk to.
He was a huge inspiration for me......I made so many clay monsters as a kid, and wished I could get my dad's super-8 camera to record frame by frame
Yeah...I said "super-8"....I am ancient ...from the days before you could do things like that on any cell-phone :P
RH was the GOD of stop motion. A genre unto himself. Nobody went to see a sci fi movie with Harryhausen effects, they went to see a Harryhausen movie. He changed the medium forever.
To be fair, half of the credit has to go to Ray's late partner and producer, Charles H. Schneer, who let the effects tail wag the dog and literally made a career out of making sure that the next Dynamation picture always got made, somehow. There were other effects artist of equal talent, the great Willis O'Brien before and Jim Danforth being Harryhausen's most notable contemporary, but none of them ever had the great fortune to find a producer who was willing to just let them do what they did best. Really, the only similar relationship I can think of was the Derek Meddings/Gerry Anderson combo of the the sixties and early seventies that gave us such special effects laden gems as Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and (my all time favorite FX series) U.F.O., (and maybe, on a much, much lower scale and budget, David Allen and Charles Band.)
he was an institution to many, and his influence on what we love doing is unarguable.
Rest In Peace Ray and thanks for the inspiration.
Sad to hear - a true innovator, one of the best.
His work helped inspire me to learn animation.
Not totally unexpected, but that doesn't make it any easier to take. Here's hoping that Ray and Ray are sitting on the edge of a cloud, happily chatting away for all eternity. Thanks for making my childhood a little brighter...
It's a tad uncanny that the Sony Movie Channel just wrapped up a month long tribute to Harryhausen, airing a majority of his films as well as a 90 minute retrospective containing recent interviews with Ray and several of the filmmakers he inspired like Speilberg, Cameron, Peter Jackson, and others.
At least he was recognized while he was still alive and coherent enough to appreciate the honors. Plus, people like director Peter Jackson and others helped to preserve his legacy, his models, his test footage, molds, castings, etc. before they were lost, damaged or destroyed. How many creative people have died in obscurity, forgotten? Or, if they are remembered, it's years after they've passed when the acknowledgments do them little good. In that respect Harryhausen was very fortunate.
His films certainly influenced my childhood. And should senility ever strike me (Mogg forbid), I suspect my memories of his fabulous creatures will be some of the few I retain.
Sincerely,
Bill
I still remember seeing MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961), ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966) and VALLEY OF GWANGI (1969) at the Saturday Matinée in the small town I grew up in. I must have watched the Sinbad movies dozens of times on TV. They showed them on Sunday afternoons often back in the old we only had 3 channels days. Only Godzilla ranked as high on my childhood favorite movies list.
One of his relatives was a close friend for a few years and kept teasing me with offers to meet him. Sadly he never followed through. I've always regretted that.
Harryhausen and Rick Baker are as close as I've ever come to being a groupie.
Rest in Peace with the God's on Mount Olympus.
OMG I just learned that special effects master Ray Harryhausen died yesterday. I have lost another of my heroes :(
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20130507/DA64NGHG1.html
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366063/?ref_=sr_1
http://youtu.be/U9kmjW73-v4
merging with the other thread.
I remember watching "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" when it was released and being really impressed with it(if "frightened" is impressed). After that, when Godzilla came out, I thought that looked really fake and silly, not scary at all. So guess which movie turned into a franchise.
For those of us of who are fans of animation, I am sorry to tell y'all that Ray Harryhausen died in London yesterday. :(
See http://preview.tinyurl.com/bw66co4 or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen for more information.
I remember seeing "Sinbad" and "Jason and the Argonauts" as a youngster and being impressed. Matter of fact, Harryhausen was probably the biggest single influence on getting me interested in animation, and I dare say that there are many of us who can say the same thing.
Thanks for the memories and the inspiration, Sensei!
Thanks. I appreciate it!
R.I.P., Ray.
He was truly a master of his craft and will be much missed. Even now, his films retain their magic in ways that CGI will never match.
Having said that, what I would like to see, and I think it would be possible with Genesis, would be for Daz to approach his estate and get a license to produce his creatures. Who of us wouldn't love to create scenes with his Ymir, Cyclops or Medusa or any other of his creations!? Make it so, Daz, make it so!
CHEERS!