Harryhausen started in the early 1940s making training films for the military in World War II, and after the war provided the stop-motion animation to some of the famous sci-fi films of the 1950s, with hsi final film being the original Clash of the Titans in 1981. You may not know what he looked like (that's him on the left), but you'll recognize his animation. Remember the skeletons in a swordfight in Jason and the Argonauts? That's Harryhausen's work. So was the gorilla in Mighty Joe Young (the original version in 1949). The six-armed giant "octopus" in It Came From Beneath the Sea? Harryhausen again.For better or worse, CGI passed stop-motino by, giving us movies where the filmmakers seem to care more about the effects than they do about having a good story. RIP Ray Harryhausen.
