Willis O'Brien
Encyclopedia : W : WI : WIL : Willis O'Brien
Willis H. "O'Bie" O'Brien (March 2, 1886 - November 8, 1962) was a pioneering motion picture special effects artist who specialized in stop-motion animation.
O'Brien was born in Oakland, California. He was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Daily News, and a professional marble sculptor before he began working in film. He was hired by the Edison Company to produce several short films with a prehistoric theme.
O'Brien's first Hollywood feature was The Lost World (1925). Although his 1931 film Creation was never completed, it led to his most famous work, animating the gorilla in King Kong (1933). The film Mighty Joe Young (1949), on which O'Brien is credited as Technical Creator, won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects in 1950. Credit for the award went to the films producers, ARKO Productions, but O'Brien was also awarded a statue. O'Brien's protege (and successor), Ray Harryhausen, worked along side O'Brien on this film.
O'Brien was married to Hazel Ruth Collette in 1925 and divorced by 1930. He had two sons from the marriage, but, in 1933, Hazel shot and killed the two boys and turned the gun on herself. She survived but died soon after from cancer and tuberculosis.
O'Brien died in Los Angeles. He was survived by his second wife, Darlyne. In 1997, he was posthumously awarded the Winsor McCay Award by Asifa-Hollywood, the United States chapter of the International Animated Film Society ASIFA (Association internationale du film d'animation). The award is in recognition of lifetime or career contributions to the art of animation.
References
- "Willis H. O'Brien". [The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)]
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.