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Special Effects Pioneer Ray Harryhausen Dies, 92

There is some news to report that the special effects animator and stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen has died at the age of 92 at his home in London. The announcement was made by Harryhausen’s family on his Official Facebook Page.



Born in Los Angeles in 1920, Harryhausen was influenced by movies such as The Lost World (1925) and King Kong (1933) as a child and he quickly emerged as a animation talent in the 1940s and 1950s, including working as a first technician on the Oscar winning movie Mighty Joe Young.

During his career Harryhausen worked on many fantasy, monster and sci-fi movies and made many iconic creatures and sequences as he perfected the mix of live-action and stop-motion animation. The highlights of his career include Clash of the Titans (1981), The “Sinbad” movies and my personal favorite Jason and the Argonauts and the famous skeleton battle.

Harryhausen’s work ended up inspiring many generations of filmmakers, including Tim Burton, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro and has clearly impacted both special effects and animation in film.

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