Willis O'Brien

Willis Harold O'Brien (AKA: "Obie"; March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962) was an Irish American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, best remebered for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949), for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Biography

Willis O'Brien was born in Oakland, California. He first left home at the age of eleven to work on cattle ranches, and again at the age of thirteen when he took on a variety of jobs including farmhand, factory worker, fur trapper, cowboy, and bartender. During this time he also competed in rodeos and devloped an interest in dinosaurs while working as a guide to palaeontologists in Creater Lake region. He spent his spare time sculpting and illustrating and his natural talent lead to him being employed first as draftsman in an architect's office and then as a sports cartoonist for the San Francisco Daily News. During this time he also became a professional boxing, winning his first nine bouts but retiring after an unsuccessful tenth. He subsequently worked for the railroad, first as a brakeman and later a surveyor, was assistant to the head architect of the San Francisco World's Fair, and a professional marble sculptor. During this time he made models, including a dinosaur and a caveman, which he animated with the assistance of a local newsreel cameraman. San Francisco exhibitor Herman Wobber saw this test footage and commisioned O'Brien to make his first film, The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy (1915).

Thomas A. Edison was impressed by the film and O'Brien was hired by the Edison Company to animate a series of short films with a prehistoric theme, culminating with the nineteen minute long The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918), which helping to secure his position on The Lost World. For his early, short films O'Brien created his own characters out of clay, although for much of his feature career he would employ Richard and Marcel Delgado to create much more detailed stop-motion models (based on O'Brien's designs) with rubber skin built up over complex, articulated metal armatures.

O'Brien was married to Hazel Ruth Collette in 1925 and divorced by 1930. He had two sons from the marriage, but, in 1933, Hazel shot and killed the two boys and turned the gun on herself. She survived but died soon after suffering from cancer and tuberculosis.

O'Brien's first Hollywood feature was The Lost World (1925). Although his 1931 film Creation was never completed, it led to his most famous work, animating the dinosaurs and the famous giant ape in King Kong (1933), and its sequel Son of Kong (1933). He was chief technician for the epic The Last Days of Pompeii (1935). The film Mighty Joe Young (1949), on which O'Brien is credited as Technical Creator, won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects in 1950. Credit for the award went to the films producers, RKO Productions, but O'Brien was also awarded a statue. O'Brien's protege (and successor), Ray Harryhausen, worked alongside O'Brien on this film, and by some accounts Harryhausen did the majority of the animation. O'Brien did some special effects work on Orson Welles' American classic Citizen Kane.

Later movies with special effects by Willis O'Brien included The Animal World (US 1956, in collaboration with Harryhausen), The Black Scorpion (US 1957) and Behemoth, the Sea Monster (UK 1959, US release entitled The Giant Behemoth). Although O'Brien is widely hailed as an animation pioneer, in his later years he struggled to find work. On the 1960 remake of The Lost World, O'Brien was hired as the effects technician, but was disappointed that producer Irwin Allen opted for live lizards instead of stop-motion animation for the dinosaurs. One of his story ideas was used in Ishirō Honda's King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962). Shortly before his death, he animated a brief scene in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), featuring some characters dangling from a fire escape and ladder. O'Brien died before the film was released.

O'Brien died in Los Angeles. He was survived by his second wife, Darlyne. In 1997, he was posthumously awarded the Winsor McCay Award by ASIFA-Hollywood, the United States chapter of the International Animated Film Society ASIFA (Association internationale du film d'animation). The award is in recognition of lifetime or career contributions to the art of animation. His interment was located at Chapel of the Pines Crematory.

The 1969 film The Valley of Gwangi, completed by Harryhausen seven years after O'Brien's death, was based on an idea he had spent years trying to bring to the screen. O'Brien wrote the script for an earlier version of the story which was released as The Beast of Hollow Mountain (US 1956), but O'Brien did not handle the effects for that movie.

Completed films (in chronological order)

• The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy (1915)
• The Birth of a Flivver (1916)
• Morpheus Mike (1916)
• R.F.D. 10,000 B.C. (1917)
• Prehistoric Poultry (1917)
• Curious Pets of Our Ancestors (1917)
• In the Villain's Power (1917)
• The Puzzling Billboard (1917)
• Mickey's Naughty Nightmares (1917)
• The Ghost of Slumber Mountain (1918)
• The Lost World (1925)
• King Kong (RKO, 1933)
• Son of Kong (1933)
• The Last Days of Pompeii (1935)
• The Dancing Pirate (1936)
• Tulips Shall Grow (1940)
• Mighty Joe Young (RKO, 1949) – Academy Award for Best Visual Effects
• This Is Cinerama (1952)
• The Animal World (US, 1956) (with Ray Harryhausen)
• The Beast of Hollow Mountian (1956)
• The Black Scorpion (US 1957)
• The Cosmic Monster (1958)
• Behemoth, the Sea Monster (UK 1959; US release entitled The Giant Behemoth)
• The Animal World (1957)
• The Lost World (1960) – Technical Consultant
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963; part)

Uncompleted or unmade projects (in alphabetical order)

• Atlantis – developed by O'Brien and Harry Hoyt after the success of The Lost World.
• Baboon: A Tale about a Yeti – story set in the Himalayas
• The Bubbles – bubble-like creatures in Baja California start eating up anything in their path.
• Creation
• The Eagle – about a giant eagle who kills a dinosaur
• Emilio and Guloso – about a boy and his pet bull who save their town from a dinosaur called "Lagarto Grande" ("The Great Lizard").
• Frankenstein
• Gwangi – eventually made into The Valley of Gwangi by Ray Harryhausen.
• Last of the Labyrinthodons – modern-day sea monsters from prehistoric times attacking ships
• The Last of the Oso Si-Papu – about a giant creature resembling a bear with skin like a Gila monster roaming Arizona
• Umbah – treatment by O'Brien about two giant Indians spawned by a doctor's experiment
• Valley of the Mists – further elaboration of "Emilio."
• The Vines of Ceres – vines from outer space engulf San Francisco
• War Eagles – about a race of Vikings riding on prehistoric eagles who fought dinosaurs. Cancelled by World War II.

External links

• Willis H. O'Brien at the Internet Movie Database
• "Willis H. O'Brien: special effects pioneer" (Additional information and photos)
• "Willis H. O'Brien: stop-motion pioneer" (early stop-motion shorts and photos)
• "Monster Film Giants Willis H. O'Brien" (Full length bio and career profile)