A Master Passes

I grew up in the 50s and 60s, and my favorite movies all had monsters in them.  The best of those wonderfully terrifying creatures were the brainchildren of a man named Ray Harryhausen.  He was the genius behind the Cyclops in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad.  He created an army of sword-wielding skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts.  The Ymir, his alien creature from Venus in Twenty Million Miles to Earth, made me believe in life on other planets—terrible life.  His dinosaurs that menaced James Franciscus in Valley of the Gwangi also menaced me in my nightmares.  Harryhausen was the best stop-action animator the film world ever knew.  With the advent of CGI and the demise of other, earlier, cruder forms of animation, he’s probably the best of his kind that we’re likely ever to know.  He died yesterday.

I’d just like say goodbye to a guy who made my Saturday afternoons at the movie theater something to look forward to.  So long, Ray.  Give the angels a thrill.

harryh

1 thought on “A Master Passes”

  1. being born in 1950, I too remember going to the movies and seeing The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, especially the cyclop and the skeletons coming out of the ground with swords. I just started reading ordinary grace and know I’m going to thoroughly enjoy it.

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