Anecdotes

George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Peter Jackson all hail his film work as indispensable foundations for their own.

He regards Jason et les Argonautes (1963) as his best film.

The restaurant in Monstres & Cie (2001) is named after him.

In Les Noces funèbres (2005), the use of stop-motion animation reaches new heights, and as a tribute to him, the grand piano that appears in it has a gold name plate with "Harryhausen" engraved on it.

He developed the technique of rear and front projecting footage one frame at a time while animating to do stop-motion on a budget. This technique, which he named Dynamation, is still used by stop-motion animators today.

As a teenager in his native Los Angeles, Harryhausen joined a science-fiction club. It was there that he met two men who would become lifelong friends: Ray Bradbury and Forrest J. Ackerman.

He often talked to Bernard Herrmann about doing a film in which Herrmann would have written pieces of music and Harryhausen would have designed animation sequences to go with them, a la Fantasia (1940).

Unrealized projects for which test footage was shot include H.G. Wells' La Guerre des mondes (1953) and Les aventures du baron de Munchausen (1988).

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Blvd. on June 10, 2003.

Because of his unusual last name, some sources have incorrectly listed his name as "Ray Harry Hausen" and even just "Harry Hausen".

Another unmade project of his was "Elementals", about a colony of humanoid bat-creatures that attack Paris. All that remains of the project is several conceptual drawings and some test footage of one of the creatures snatching up and carrying off a hapless victim (played by Harryhausen himself).

His wife, Diana Livingstone Bruce, was a descendant of Scottish explorer David Livingstone. Of the marriage, Ray Bradbury--a friend for more than 50 years--commented, "He found just the right woman at just the right time, and it worked out terrifically".

Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2005.

Harbored a life-long resentment for the Japanese Godzilla films, which took major inspiration from the American movie Le Monstre des temps perdus (1953), for which he had animated the monster. Ray considered the suitmation techniques of Japanese monster films unconvincing and cheap, and there is even a widespread rumor that claims he would reject fans who approached him wearing Godzilla T-shirts. The film King Kong contre Godzilla (1963) was initially conceptualized by his mentor and close friend Willis H. O'Brien, but was completed without his consent. O'Brien was appalled the completed product due to it bearing no similarity to his original idea, which would have added more fuel to Ray's disdain for Godzilla films.

After the success of Le Choc des Titans (1981), he planned work on a sequel entitled Force of the Trojans, which was to be based on the travels of the Trojan warrior Aeneas. Ultimately, the film was never made, possibly due to the advent of more sophisticated computer-assisted technology.

Has donated his models and artwork to the Bradford Museum of Media.

Jason et les Argonautes (1963) was his favourite of the 13 films that he worked on, and while not doing too well at the box office outside Britain, it is now considered to be a classic.

Passed away on May 7, 2013, less than two months from what would have been his 93rd birthday on June 29th.

His early fairy tales can be found on Mill Creek Entertainment's "Giant 600 Cartoon Collection",.

He married his wife, Diana, when he was in his early 40's.

His daughter, Vanessa Harryhausen, was born in 1964.

He was of German descent and the family name was originally "Harrenhausen".

He passed away on May 7, 2013, and his wife, Diana, passed away only five months later, on October 6th.

His concept drawings, props and models became a popular traveling exhibit.