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Ray Harryhausen was born in Los Angeles, California, to Martha and Frederick Harryhausen.
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Ray's parents were very supportive and encouraged him to purse what he wanted to do for a career. They took him to films and showed him models and animation, which was soon to be his future career.
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From a young age, Ray had a passion for dinosaurs and fantasy.
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At 13 years old, Ray's parents took him to see King Kong, and he began researching how it was made, interested in the process to create the famous film.
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Harryhausen took a major interest in dinosaurs, so when he was 18, he took part in a compition called “The Junoir Museum Hobby Show” where he entered a diorama (a scene, often in miniature, reproduced in three dimensions by placing objects, figures, etc., in front of a painted background) that included a stegosaurus, which took first place.
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When Ray Harryhausen was only eighteen years old, he began his first big project, ‘Evolution of the World’. He had planned to show the dawn of the planet, to the end of the age of the dinosaurs. He made a number of different dinosaurs, but started to realize the project was too ambitious.
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At age 20, Ray decided to enroll in art and anatomy night classes at the Los Angeles College, after getting advice from the animator of ‘King Kong’, Willis O’Brien. After realizing that wasn’t enough, he took classes at the University of Southern California where he studied more about editing and photography.
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After World War 2, Harryhausen collected over 1000 feet of unsed military film, and this helped him land a job with Willis O'Brien and Marcel Delgado. He created 85% of the animation, although did not get any credit for it.
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A big career highlight in his life was when Ray got hired by Warner Brothers to work on special effects. He was becoming more known to the animation world, and his career was taking off.
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In 1958 a big hit “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad' was created. Ray Harryhausen made creatures of every possible description; snake women, two headed giant bireds, skeleton warriros and dueling cyclops and dragon in the finale. This film was a high point in Harryhausen’s career.
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMFdVEQcH_0 This link is the video of Harryhausen's big hit, 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.' -
Harryhausen was married to Diana Bruce, which they then had a girl named Vanessa. This picture is of Ray himself, and his only daughter.
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Ray Harryhausen's films brought legends to life, and he also became one himself. He advanced the art of special effects to new heights. He used innovative techniques like blending stop motion creatures with live action, something no one had tried doing before.
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This film is about the myth of Perseus and his quest to battle both Medusa and the Kraken monster to save the Princess Andromeda.There are two main models of the Kraken that Ray Harryhausen made. The small one and the large upper torso were only used for one shot of Pegasus flying in front of him.
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In 1992, Ray Harryhausen received a special Oscar, presented to him by Tom Hanks. Although his films never won any Oscars, he was honoured with many awards, from all around the world.
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In 2010 he was awarded a special British academy of Film and Television Arts award, celebrating his great contributes to cinema. He celebrated his 90th birthday around the same time. Also, in 2011 he received a lifetime award from the Visual Effects society.
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Ray Harryhausen died in London England at age 92.
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Creator of star wars, George Lucas said “Without Ray Harryhausen, there would likey have been no ‘Star wars’,” which shows how great Harryhausen was with his work.
Ray Harryhausen(center) is taking a picture with George Lucas(right) as good friends, -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9kmjW73-v4
This video shows a bunch of ray harryhausen’s creatures he created throughtout his career.
