Ray Harryhausen

In 1933, when he was 13 years old, Ray Harryhausen’s mother took him to see King Kong, and a passion was born. Apprenticed to the leader of stop-motion animation, Willis O’Brien, on Mighty Joe Young, he was soon the reigning master of this tricky field, in which skeletons dueled with live actors and many a weird creature sailed many an ocean blue. He made 15 movies, including Jason and the Argonauts, delighting small boys everywhere and winning the respect and envy of his peers. A modest, soft-spoken man, he made his last movie, Clash of the Titans, in 1981, but books about him abounded, and his legend grew. Special effects have become more technologically sophisticated in recent decades. But when he died May 7 at 92, no one had truly surpassed Harryhausen’s innocence and delight–and the every-frame evidence of a master craftsman’s shaping sensibility and artisanship.