- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- Obie
- In 1949, 16 years after his ground-breaking work on the 1933 film "King Kong", Willis O'Brien worked as Chief Technician on another gorilla film for Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Shoedsack titled "Mighty Joe Young". A young Ray Harryhausen would do most of the animation, but O'Brien did come up with the designs for the film. At the 1950 Academy Awards, O'Brien was awarded an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for "Mighty Joe Young". This, along with "King Kong", are often considered his greatest achievements.- IMDb Mini Biography By: pitsburghfuzz
- SpousesDarlyne Prenett(November 17, 1934 - November 8, 1962) (his death)Hazel Ruth Collette(1925 - 1930) (separated, 2 children)
- Stop Motion Technology
- O'Brien's first marriage to Hazel Collette was a troubled and uneasy affair. By 1930 it had been dissolved, but not before having produced two sons, William and Willis Jr. Hazel suffered from tuberculosis and was often heavily sedated. The disease then spread to William and blinded him. In the fall of 1933, during the production of the film Son of Kong (1933), Hazel shot and killed her two sons and then turned the gun on herself. She survived the incident, but died from cancer and tuberculosis soon afterward.
- On the day O'Brien received back the first printed footage of the film King Kong (1933) in motion, he noticed that the fur covering the King Kong puppet had moved because it was disturbed by his fingers during filming. He had to show the footage to the film's producer that day and was worried his boss would notice this supposed mistake and fire him. However, upon showing the producer this footage, the man applauded his ability and fine attention to detail, exclaiming that he was amazed that he had even managed to make Kong's fur blow around in the wind.
- After O'Brien's death his protege, Ray Harryhausen, made regular visits to his second wife, Darlyne, until her death.
- O'Brien spent significant pre-production time on various film projects that were never made; they included "Creation" (1931), "The War Eagles" (1938), "Gwangi" (1941) and "Emilio and Guloso" a.k.a. "Valley of the Mist" (1950).
- In 1928, O'Brien proposed a stop-motion animated version of "Frankenstein" and even shot test footage of it. Between 1958 and 1961, he proposed a stop-motion animated satirical second sequel to King Kong (1933) (the first sequel to it was Son of Kong (1933), which he personally disliked) titled "King Kong vs. Frankenstein," which was later changed to "King Kong vs. the Ginko" and then changed again to "King Kong vs. Prometheus." Neither one of these two Frankenstein films were ever made.
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