Happy 91st Birthday, Ray Harryhausen!

7th Voyage of Sinbad TrailerSpecial effects master Ray Harryhausen had a profound effect on my life.  His pioneering work was instrumental into steering me into fantasy story telling, and his movies (all of them) remain among my favorites.  I even dedicated a book featuring a clockwork titan to him and Stan Lee (Paul McComas is coming over to watch a Ray film (or several) today, in honor of the Great Man’s birthday.  As I have (probably too often) pointed out to my children: today, the credits for a special effects film crew can run for 5 minutes.  On Ray’s pictures, all of that was covered by one title card and done by just one man:  Ray Harryhausen.

Happy Birthday, Ray — and many happy returns of the day!

Here’s the trailer from what is probably my favorite Harryhausen film.  (Though choosing one is like picking a favorite relative.)

And here are the links to Ray’s site, his IMDB page, his Wikipedia page, and — a personal fave — his Creature List.

About Steve Sullivan 415 Articles
Stephen D. Sullivan is an award-winning author, artist, and editor. Since 1980, he has worked on a wide variety of properties, including well-known licenses and original work. Some of his best know projects include Dungeons & Dragons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dragonlance, Iron Man, Legend of the Five Rings, Speed Racer, the Tolkien RPG, Disney Afternoons, Star Wars, The Twilight Empire (Robinson's War), Uncanny Radio, Martian Knights, Tournament of Death, and The Blue Kingdoms (with his friend Jean Rabe).