Offscreen Notes
Ray Harryhausen: 1920-2013
The last survivor of the three muskateers of the fantastic, Ray Harryhausen (1920-May 7, 2013), has died at the age of 92. The first to die was Forrest J Ackerman at same age 92 on Dec. 4, 2008, followed by Ray Bradbury age 91 on June 5, 2012. These three giants of the field of the Fantastic did more to shape and promote the field of the popular Fantastic than perhaps any other people in their field. Ackerman as a writer’s agent, ambassador and founder of the first ever monster magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Ray Bradbury as a science-fiction and fantasy writer and Harryhausen as the greatest ever stop motion animator and visual effects creator, an art that has now given way to digital animation. These three figures met in the late 1930s and remained close friends until the end. Harryhausen was inspired by the stop mositon animation work of pioneer Willis O’Brien, noting in particular King Kong as the film that inspired him to take up the field. Harryhausen first solo film was loosely based on a Bradbury short story, “The Fog Horn,” The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), which quickly established him as the heir apparent to O’Brien. Over a dozen key works in the genre of fantasy/science-fiction followed in the 1960s, 1970s, including the classics Mighty Joe Young (1949), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957), The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), Jason and the Argonauts, and The Valley of Gwangi (1969). Although a cliche, an era has well and truly come to pass.
