Thursday, March 02, 2006

BORN TODAY: WILLIS O'BRIEN

Happy Birthday to WILLIS O'BRIEN! For those of you who don't know, O'Brien did the FX for 1933's King Kong, which revolutionized special fx. The innovative ideas and techniques developed during the film are still used Today, albeit with different tools. If you haven't watched the newly released KING KONG original I highly recommend it. The 2nd disc includes some great footage and information on O'BRIEN and what he did. Unfortunately, O'Brien passed away in 1962, but his birthdate is still celebrated amongst geeks. Without him, special effects would not look like they do Today.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice post. I reviewed a new collection of essays about the O'Brien version of Kong over at my blog Mere Words. Enjoy!