Although it took many years of intense lobbying by the VFX community, stop-motion pioneer Ray Harryhausen (IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA, THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND and JASON & THE ARGONAUTS) finally got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, June 10, 2003, right next to the legendary El Capitan Theater.
"It all started for me in 1933 at Grauman's Chinese Theater," Harryhausen said, pointing across the street in reference to KING KONG, the movie that forever changed his life. Still very active, Harryhausen recently completed a new version of THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE as a 12-minute short.
While accepting the tribute before an enthusiastic crowd of friends and fans, the Los Angeles native, who turns 83 on June 29, acknowledged his debt to KONG'S talented producer, Merian C. Cooper, whom he worked with on MIGHTY JOE YOUNG in 1949 as first technician.
Paying tribute to Harryhausen were high school chum Ray Bradbury, monster maven Forrest Ackerman, who introduced the two in 1939 and gave Harryhausen his first set of KONG stills, and director Frank Darabont (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION), who is scripting INDIANA JONES 4 and hard at work on a remake of Bradbury's FARENHEIT 451.
"If it were up to me, I would dig up [my star] and bring it down next to Ray's," Bradbury fondly said.
Darabont was much more loquacious. "There isn't a MATRIX movie being made today that doesn't owe a debt to you. Ray got to the truth of Edison's invention that film captures life at 24-frames-per-second."
The director added that when working with Tom Hanks on the set of THE GREEN MILE, he asked the superstar what inspired him to become an actor. '"'When I saw Jason fighting skeletons, I knew that was what wanted to do fight skeletons.'"
Harryhausen is the third VFX legend to grace the Walk of Fame with a star (number 2,228), joining Stan Winston and ILM's Dennis Muren. A few of the industry celebrities in attendance were Winston, Rick Baker and Pixar's Pete Docter (MONSTERS, INC.).
PHOTOS-Ray Harryhausen, a legendary star of the VFX community, was inducted in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, June 10, 2003, next to the historic El Capitan Theater. The father of JASON & THE ARGONAUTS proudly holds a replica of his star (upper right), joined by old chum Ray Bradbury (lower left), while director Frank Darabont pays tribute as a member of a younger generation (lower right).
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
