Willis obrien biography

Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962), known as Obie O'Brien, was an.
Willis Harold O'Brien, known as Obie O'Brien, was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known.
Willis O'Brien was the inventor of the 3D stop-motion animation technique used in the movies The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933), and Mighty Joe Young .

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Willis O'Brien

The father of "stop-motion" animation, Willis O'Brien (1886-1962) was a Hollywood special effects innovator most famous for his work using miniature models of a gorilla in King Kong. O'Brien'spioneering efforts transformed the possibilities of filmmaking, inventing a new kind of visual language later exploited by others in movies such as Jaws and Alien.

Starting with his models in animated shorts and in the original dinosaur movie, 1925's The Lost World, O'Brien gave American filmmakers new latitude in creating monstrous fantasies. Although he won an Academy Award for the special effects in Mighty Joe Young in 1949, O'Brien labored largely in obscurity, gaining neither fame nor fortune. Many of O'Brien's fantastic, elaborate film ideas were never realized.

Conjurer of Movie Tricks

Born in Oakland, California, in 1886, Willis Harold O'Brien worked short stints as a cowboy and a boxer before becoming a cartoonist for the San Francisco Daily News. Soon, he grew interested in sculpting, making mostly small human or animal figures. In 1913, his

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Willis O'Brien

Willis Harold O'Brien was an American special effects pioneer who has been credited as the creator of stop-motion animation.

Biography

In his spare time, O'Brien enjoyed sculpting and illustrating which led to his being employed as a cartoonist. During this time he also worked a variety of other jobs including a professional boxer. A 1915 short film made with some of his sculptures called The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy greatly impressed innovator Thomas Edison, and he was subsequently hired by the Edison Company to produce more dinosaur films. Much later, after taking a job with RKO, O'Brien began work on an eventually-scrapped film titled Creation by studio head Merian C. Cooper, who instead offered to use his dinosaur models on his own project, King Kong, due to his being so impressed with his work.

However, he distanced himself from the film's sequel, Son of Kong, which he allegedly felt to be "cheesy," and asked not to be credited in the film. Between 1958 and 1961, O'Brien would write a screenplay treatment and draw s

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Willis H. O'Brien

American special effects technician and animator

Willis O'Brien
O'Brien in 1931
Born	Willis Harold O'Brien (1886-03-02)March 2, 1886 Oakland, California, U.S.
Died	November 8, 1962(1962-11-08) (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Chapel of the Pines Crematory
Other names	"Obie"
Occupation(s)	Oscar Award winning Stop motionmodel animator
Years active	1915–1962
Spouse(s)	Hazel Ruth Collette (1925–1930; divorce) Darlyne Prenett (1934–1962; his death)
Children	2
Awards	Academy Award Best Visual Effects (1950); Winsor McCay Award (1997)

Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962), known as Obie O'Brien, was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history," and is best remembered for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933), The Last Days of Pompeii (1935) and Mighty Joe Young (1949), for which he won the 1950 Ac