Willis O'Brien with his Academy Award.

Willis H. "O'Bie" O'Brien (March 2, 1886 - November 8, 1962) was a pioneering motion picture special effects artist who perfected and specialized in stop-motion animation. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... March 2 is the 61st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (62nd in leap years). ... 1886 (MDCCCLXXXVI) is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) // Events January 18 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... November 8 is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 53 days remaining. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... Film is a term that encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. ... Special effects (abbreviated SPFX or SFX) are used in the film, television, and entertainment industry to create effects that cannot be achieved by normal means, such as depicting travel to other star systems. ... Stop motion is an animation technique which makes things that are static appear to be moving. ...

O'Brien was born in Oakland, California. He was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Daily News, and a professional marble sculptor before he began working in film. He was hired by the Edison Company to produce several short films with a prehistoric theme. 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. Oakland, founded in 1852, is the eighth-largest city in California[1] and the county seat of Alameda County. ... Venus de Milo, front. ... A sculpture is a three-dimensional object, which for the purposes of this article is man-made and selected for special recognition as art. ... A short film (also short or short subject) is a motion picture that is shorter than the average feature film. ... Prehistory (Greek words προ = before and ιστορία = history) is the period of human history prior to the advent of writing (which marks the beginning of recorded history). ... In literature (as well as many works of nonfiction), a theme is the main idea of the story, or the message the author is conveying. ... Sculptor and model-maker born in Coahuila, Mexico, on January 16th, 1901. ...

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). The film Mighty Joe Young (1949), on which O'Brien is credited as Technical Creator, won an Academy Award for Best Effects, Special 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 along side O'Brien on this film, and by some accounts Harryhausen did the majority of the animation. Although O'Brien is widely hailed as animation pioneer, in his later career he struggled for years to find work; shortly before his death he animated a brief scene in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, featuring some characters dangling from a fire escape. The 1969 film The Valley of Gwangi, completed seven years after his death, was based on an idea he'd spent years trying to bring to the screen. Greetings from Hollywood Hollywood is a district of the city of Los Angeles, California, U.S.A., that extends from Vermont Avenue on the east to just beyond Laurel Canyon Boulevard above Sunset and Crescent Heights Boulevards on the west; the north to south boundary east of La Brea Avenue... The Lost World is a 1925 silent adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyles book of the same name. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... Creation was an unfinished 1931 feature film, and project of stop motion animator Willis OBrien. ... This is about the original movie and novel. ... The Son of Kong is the sequel to the successful film King Kong. ... The original Mighty Joe Young movie poster. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... This article is about the film production company. ... Ray Harryhausen (born June 29, 1920 in Los Angeles, California) is an American producer and, most notably, a special effects creator. ... Its a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is an American motion picture directed by Stanley Kramer about a madcap pursuit of $350,000 by a diverse group of strangers. ... Gwangi fights and kills a Styracosaurus. ...

The animation and special effects created by O'Brien and his teams still have the power to move audiences. Modern audiences can often be heard chuckling during Kong's early scenes, and just as often they are in tears by the end.

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. 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease caused by the mycobacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Mycobacterium bovis. ...

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. Nickname: City of Angels Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates: State California County Los Angeles County Incorporated April 4, 1850 Government  - Type Mayor-Council  - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D)  - City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo  - Governing body City Council Area  - City  498. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. ...

References

• "Willis H. O'Brien". The Internet Movie Database (IMDb)