Trivia

As a teenager in this native Los Angeles, Harryhausen joined a science fiction club. It was there that he met two men who would become lifelong friends, Ray Bradbury and Forrest J. Ackerman.

Because of his unusual last name, some sources have incorrectly listed his name as "Ray Harry Hausen" and even just "Harry Hausen".

He regards Jason and the Argonauts (1963) as his best film.

Unrealized projects for which test footage was shot include H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1953) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988).

The restaurant in Monsters, Inc. (2001) is named after him.

Another unmade project of his was "Elementals", about a colony of humanoid bat-creatures which attack Paris. All that remains of the project is several conceptual drawings and some test footage of one of the creatures snatching up and carrying off a hapless victim (played by Harryhausen himself).

His wife, Diana Livingstone Bruce, was a descendant of Scottish explorer David Livingstone. Of the marriage, Ray Bradbury--a friend for more than 50 years--commented, "He found just the right woman at just the right time, and it worked out terrifically".

He often talked to Bernard Herrmann about doing a film in which Herrmann would have written pieces of music and Harryhausen would have designed animation sequences to go with them, a la Fantasia (1940).

He developed the technique of rear and front projecting footage one frame at time while animating to do stop-motion on a budget. This technique which he named Dynamation is still used by stop-motion animators today.

In Corpse Bride (2005), the use of stop-motion animation reaches new heights, and as a tribute to him, the grand piano that appears in it has a gold name plate with "Harryhausen" engraved on it.

Has donated his models and artwork to the Bradford Museum of Media.

George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Peter Jackson all hail his film work as indispensable foundations for their own.

Ray Harryhausen passed away on May 7, 2013, less than two months away from what would have been his 93rd birthday on June 29th.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on June 10, 2003.

Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 2005.