The death of Ray Harryhausen, one of the most respected and influential artists working in the movies, was announced today. He and his other two equally important friends Ray Bradbury and Forrest J. Ackerman had seen King Kong as boys, but it was Ray who took up the mantle as the king of the stop motion animation as handed to him by Kong's creator Willis O'Brien. After war service Ray worked for George Pal making fairy tales, then it was Mighty Joe Young which set him on a path which made the movies he was involved with must-sees for generations.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms was credited with kicking off the giant monster movie craze of the fifties and beyond, and he followed it with It Came from Beneath the Sea, Earth vs. The Flying Saucers and 20 Million Miles to Earth, but it was his international hit The 7th Voyage of Sinbad which made him a household name among aficionados. The sixties were a heyday for his career, ranging from superb work in such films as Mysterious Island and his acknowledged classic Jason and the Argonauts (with the stunning skeleton battle) to One Million Years B.C. (his models sharing the screen with Raquel Welch), First Men in the Moon and Valley of Gwangi. Later efforts were not quite as groundbreaking, but his fans watched them regardless, with more Sinbad movies and his last, Clash of the Titans. A true inspiration, Ray entertained the world.
