1. Background Information: He liked dinosaurs and anything in the fantasy world His parents encouraged him into doing his dream career, they took him to films and theatres and assisted in his productions later on. His mother bought him Books of `Wonder which initiated his imagination and his inspiration He went to a grammar school where he learned how to make model miniature set pieces of California missions After watching KING KONG (1933) he was hooked for life http://www.rayharryhausen.com/biography.php Official website:

2. Background Information: He bought a 16mm camera and started making his own short films He made marionettes which he replicated a few of the King Kong moments He visited an exhibition in LA county museum on techniques used to create the lost world and King Kong By visiting this museum many times he began to understand how stop motion was created. He said as I continued to study and learn how the effects for Kong were achieved, I realized this was something I really wanted to try for myself and perhaps even be part of, so I began to construct my own miniature dioramas and crude models, which eventually led me to take the step in making larger moveable figures He enrolled at Los Angeles City College (LACC) in art and anatomy night classes 3. FILMS: These are a few of Ray Harryhousens films: 1935 to 1936 Cavebear and various experimental dinosaur films 1937------------The Jupiter Project(unrealised) 1940------------ Evolution of the world 1945------------ Lucky strike Cigarette advert 1946------------ Mothergoose stories, silver dollar commercial, Kenny Key 1946------------ Mighty Joe Young, War Of The Worlds (unrealised) 1950--------------- The story of little red ridding hood 1951---------------the story of Hansel and Gretel 1952---------------The story of Rapunzel 1973---------------The Golden voyage of Sinbad 2003- Elf (voice of the polar bear cub) 4. Quotes I'm another snowball. Willis H. O'Brien started the snowball, then I picked it up, then ILM (industrial light and magic) picked it up and now the computer generation is picking it up. Where it will end, I don't know. Maybe in holography, although I'm not sure I'd like a grotesque monster appearing in 3-D in my living room The thing that finally persuaded me to quit was that I saw that the nature of the hero was changing. When I was growing up we had heroes such as Cary Grant, Ronald Colman and David Niven, real gentlemen on the screen. Now, all you have is Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and all those people who solve problems with their fists. It's a different world and I sometimes feel I'm not part of it. Say what you like about Hollywood in my time, but they were in the business of happy endings, of escapism. Now, you have to sit through two hours of people dying, you know. Today, everything's so graphic it's rather unnerving. I got tired of being in a dark room while the rest of the crew went off making another two or three films while I was still on one! But I don't regret it. People ask me if I would have used computer graphics today. I may have, I don't know. There's a lot of technology now that allows you to view instantly the film you've just shot. But I never cared what I had done, I only cared where I was going. 5. Timeline circa 800 B.C: Potehinos, the first known puppeteer, performs at the theatre of Dionysus in Athens, Greece. A.D. 130: Principle of persistence of vision proven by Greek astronomer Ptolemy. 1872: Edward Muybridge begins studying motion with strategically placed cameras. 1882: Ladislas Starewitch is born in Moscow; Etienne Jules Marey develops an early prototype for a compact movie camera. 1886: Willis OBrien is born in California, USA. 1889: Charley Bowers is born in Iowa, USA. 1890: Thomas Edison develops the Kinetoscope, a private viewing station with one long film strip. 1893: Edison opens the first movie studio in New Jersey. 1895: The Lumiere Brothers create the Cinematograph, a combination movie camera and projector; Edison makes trick film Execution of Mary Queen of Scots. 1898: Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton create The Humpty Dumpty Circus, the first animated puppet film. 1902: George Melies makes A Trip to the Moon. 1906: Blackton makes Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, the first sequentially drawn animated film; Emile Cohl makes Bewitched Matches on a table top. 1908: George Pal is born in Hungary. 6. IMPACT: Harryhausen inspired a generation of film directors, from Steven Spielberg and James Cameron to Peter Jackson of the Lord of the Rings fame. Spielberg said Harryhausen's "inspiration goes with us forever" while Cameron said Hollywood science fiction film-makers had been "standing on the shoulders of a giant". Meanwhile, Star Wars creator George Lucas, paid tribute by saying: "The art of his earlier films, which most of us grew up on, inspired us so much." 7. Video: