Film Pioneer Ray Harryhausen Dies at 92

Ray Harryhausen, a true pioneer in the field of special effects and stop motion animation, passed away this week at his home in London at the age of 92. Harryhausen brought us some of the greatest special effects monsters of the past century. A few of his notable creations include the atomically awakened dinosaur that rampages through Coney Island in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), the skeleton warriors that are re-animated from the teeth in Jason and the Argonauts (1963), and the flying pterodactyl that carries off Raquel Welch in One Million Years B.C. (1966). Harryhausen’s last feature film was Clash of the Titans in 1981. In 1992, Ray Harryhausen was awarded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Gordon E. Sawyer Award for technical achievement.

See one of Harryhausen’s terrific stop motion animation monsters in this scene from Mysterious Island (1961), where we see Civil War POWs fighting against a giant crab.

Harryhausen changed the world of science fiction filmmaking and gave us some terrific films and fantastic monsters. His influence will be felt for generations to come.