About Ray Harryhausen
Raymond Frederick Harryhausen was an American-British animator and special effects creator who is regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of both fields. In a career spanning more than 40 years, he built upon the techniques of his mentor, Willis H. O'Brien, to develop a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation" and advance the field of cinematic special effects. Though not credited as a writer or director on any of the feature films he worked on, the role he played in shaping those he made during his peak years has led to him being regarded as "cinema's sole visual effects auteur," and the creatures and sequences he animated are considered some of the most iconic in the history of cinema. In 1986, he and his wife Diana Livingston Bruce founded the Ray & Diana Harryhausen Foundation to preserve his models and archives, which have been the subject of multiple exhibitions around the world. He also created the special effects for One Million Years B.C. (1966), produced by Hammer Films. After having seen King Kong (1933) on its initial release for the first of many times, Harryhausen spent his early years experimenting in the production of animated shorts, inspired by the burgeoning science fiction literary genre of the period.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.