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The Fantasy Film Worlds Of George Pal
''The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal'' is a 1985 American documentary film about Academy Award-winning producer/director George Pal. It was written, directed, and produced by Arnold Leibovit. Summary The film follows Pal's career, beginning with his early life in Hungary and Germany, and covering his progression from cartoon artist to creator of stop-motion animated short films (known as Puppetoons) to full-length feature motion pictures. Pal was a visionary and innovator in the world of motion pictures, especially in the area of stop motion animation, which he pioneered. His work earned him eight Academy Awards and served as an inspiration for Gene Roddenberry, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, among others. The film includes interviews with Pal's cast members, crew, and peers, as well as Pal himself. Release The film premiered at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as part of the annual "George Pal Lecture on Fantasy in Film". It was also released on DVD on Au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnold Leibovit
Arnold Leibovit (born June 18, 1950) is an American director, producer, and screenwriter of feature films and musical productions. An acting member of the Producers Guild of America, he has produced, directed, and written several feature films. As part of his career, he has devoted over 40 years to the work of George Pal. Included is the production of the George Pal biopic ''The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal'', for which he received a CINE Golden Eagle Award in the Arts category in 1986 and The George Pal Memorial Award (also known as the Saturn Award) from The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy and Horror Films in 1987. In addition, he produced other works focusing on Pal including ''The Puppetoon Movie''. In 2002 he served as the executive producer for ''The Time Machine''. Leibovit had earlier obtained the rights to the H.G. Wells book and the The Time Machine (1960 film), 1960 MGM motion picture through the George Pal estate. This film was produced under the direction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jim Danforth
James Danforth (born July 13, 1940) is an American stop-motion animator, known for model-animation, matte painting, and for his work on ''When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth'' (1970), a theme-sequel to Ray Harryhausen's ''One Million Years B.C.'' (1967). He later went on to work with Ray Harryhausen on the film '' Clash of the Titans'' (1981) to mainly do the animation of the winged horse Pegasus. Danforth has been nominated two times for an Academy Award for Visual Effects for George Pal's ''7 Faces of Dr. Lao'' (1964), and for ''When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth'' (1970). Career Danforth's first professional job was in television as a sculptor and artist for clay-animation pioneer Art Clokey, who had previously produced the beloved children's series ''Gumby'' (1957-1969) during the 1950s. 1960s Danforth was subsequently hired by the special effects company ''Project Unlimited'' and assisted a team of effects technicians on George Pal's celebrated 1960 feature-length science-fiction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rod Taylor
Rodney Sturt Taylor (11 January 1930 – 7 January 2015) was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including ''The Time Machine'' (1960), ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'' (1961), '' The Birds'' (1963), and ''Inglourious Basterds'' (2009). Taylor was born in Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, to a father who was a steel construction contractor and commercial artist and a mother who was a children's author. He began taking art classes in high school, and continued in college. He decided to become an actor after seeing Laurence Olivier in an Old Vic touring production of '' Richard III.'' His first film role was in a re-enactment of Charles Sturt's voyage down the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers, playing Sturt's offsider, George Macleay. At the time, he was also appearing in a number of theatre productions for Australia's Mercury Theatre. He made his feature film debut in the Australian Lee Robinson film ''King of the Coral Sea'' (1954). He soon starte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russ Tamblyn
Russell Irving Tamblyn, also known as Rusty Tamblyn (born December 30, 1934) is an American film and television actor and dancer. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Tamblyn trained as a gymnast in his youth. He began his career as a child actor for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Tamblyn appeared in the musical ''Seven Brides for Seven Brothers'' (1954). He subsequently portrayed Norman Page in the drama '' Peyton Place'' (1957), for which he earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. In ''West Side Story'' (1961), he portrayed Riff, the leader of the Jets gang. Throughout the 1970s, Tamblyn appeared in several exploitation films and worked as a choreographer in the 1980s. In 1990, he starred as Dr. Lawrence Jacoby in David Lynch's television drama ''Twin Peaks'', reprising the role during its 2017 revival. Early life Tamblyn was born December 30, 1934, in Los Angeles, California, to actors Sally Aileen (Triplett) and Edward Francis "Eddie" Tamblyn. His younger brother ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Robinson
Ann Robinson (born May 25, 1929) is a former American actress and stunt horse rider, perhaps best known for her work in the science-fiction classic ''The War of the Worlds'' (1953) and in the 1954 film '' Dragnet'', in which she starred as a Los Angeles police officer opposite Jack Webb and Ben Alexander. Early life Robinson was born at the Hollywood Hospital in Hollywood, California. She attended Hollywood High School. Her father was employed by the Bank of Hollywood, at the corner of Hollywood and Vine. He taught her how to ride horses, beginning when she was only three. Robinson became an accomplished rider, which led to her first professional work in Hollywood as a stunt rider in film '' Frenchie'' with Shelley Winters. Acting career After doubling for Winters in '' Frenchie'' (1950), Robinson starred and rode in several Westerns during her career such as ''The Cimarron Kid'' (1951) with Audie Murphy, ''Gun Brothers'' (1956), and '' Gun Duel in Durango'' (1957). Param ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Randall
Anthony Leonard Randall (born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004) was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation of the 1965 play ''The Odd Couple'' by Neil Simon. In a career spanning six decades, Randall received six Golden Globe Award nominations and six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning one Emmy. Biography Early years Randall was born to a Jewish family in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Julia (née Finston) and Mogscha Rosenberg, an art and antiques dealer. He attended Tulsa Central High School. Randall attended Northwestern University for a year before going to New York City to study at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He studied under Sanford Meisner and choreographer Martha Graham. Randall worked as an announcer at radio station WTAG in Worcester, Massachusetts. As Anthony Randall, he starred with Jane Cowl in George Bernard Shaw's '' Candida'' and Ethel Barrymore i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert Nozaki
Albert Nozaki (1 January 1912 – 16 November 2003) was a Japanese American art director who worked on various films for Paramount Pictures. He is perhaps best known for his memorable design of the Martian war machines from the 1953 film ''The War of the Worlds'' and for his Academy Award-nominated art direction on the 1956 Cecil B. DeMille epic, ''The Ten Commandments''. He retired in 1969 due to retinitis pigmentosa, which ultimately cost him his sight. Starting out at Paramount as a draftsman in the Paramount set-design department in 1934, he retired in 1969 as the studio's supervising art director for feature films. Biography Born in Japan, Nozaki's family moved to the United States when he was 3 and settled in Los Angeles. Nozaki earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Southern California in 1933 and a master's degree in architectural engineering from the University of Illinois in 1934. In 1938, and for many years thereafter, Al Nozaki lived in Ec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janet Leigh
Jeanette Helen Morrison (July 6, 1927 – October 3, 2004), known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress, singer, dancer, and author. Her career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped her secure a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Leigh appeared in radio programs before her first formal foray into acting, making her film debut in the drama ''The Romance of Rosy Ridge'' (1947). With MGM, she appeared in many films which spanned a wide variety of genres, which include the crime-drama ''Act of Violence'' (1948), the drama '' Little Women'' (1949), the comedy '' Angels in the Outfield'' (1951), the romance ''Scaramouche'' (1952) and the western drama '' The Naked Spur'' (1953). She played dramatic roles during the late 1950s, in such films as '' Safari'' (1956) and Orson Welles's film noir ''Touch of Evil'' (1958). With RKO Radio pictures she co-starred in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz (April 27, 1899 – March 22, 1994) was an American cartoonist, animator, producer and director best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker. Biography Early years and start in animation Lantz was born in New Rochelle, New York, to Italian immigrant parents Francesco Paolo Lantz (formerly Lanza) and Maria Jarvis (changed to Jarvis to avoid prejudice) from Calitri. According to Joe Adamson's biography ''The Walter Lantz Story'', Lantz's father was given his new surname by an immigration official who anglicized it. Walter Lantz was always interested in art, completing a mail-order drawing class at age 12. He was inspired when he saw Winsor McCay's animated short "Gertie the Dinosaur". While working as an auto mechanic, Lantz got his first break. Wealthy customer Fred Kafka liked his drawings on the garage's bulletin board and financed Lantz's studies at the Art Students League of New York. Kafka also helped him land a job as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten Commandments'' (1956), for which he received his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and the title role in '' Ben-Hur'' (1959), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. He also starred in '' The Greatest Show on Earth'' (1952), ''Secret of the Incas'' (1954), ''Touch of Evil'' (1958) with Orson Welles, ''The Big Country'' (1958), ''El Cid'' (1961), ''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' (1965), ''Khartoum'' (1966), ''Planet of the Apes'' (1968), ''The Omega Man'' (1971) and ''Soylent Green'' (1973). In the 1950s and 1960s, he was one of a handful of Hollywood actors to speak openly against racism and was an active supporter of the civil rights movement. Heston left the Democratic Party in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Harryhausen
Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for '' Mighty Joe Young'' (1949) with his mentor Willis H. O'Brien (for which the latter won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects); his first color film, ''The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'' (1958); and '' Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963), which featured a sword fight with seven skeleton warriors. His last film was '' Clash of the Titans'' (1981), after which he retired. In 1960, Harryhausen moved to the United Kingdom and became a dual American-British citizen. He lived in London until his death in 2013. During his life, his innovative style of special effects in films inspired numerous filmmakers. In November 2016 the BFI compiled a list of those present-day filmmakers who claim to have been inspired by Harryhausen, including Steven Spielberg, Peter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Frees
Solomon Hersh "Paul" Frees (June 22, 1920November 2, 1986) was an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and vaudevillian. He is known for his work on Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Walter Lantz, Rankin/Bass, and Walt Disney theatrical cartoons during the Golden Age of Animation and for providing the voice of Boris Badenov in ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show''. Voice actor Mel Blanc said Frees was known as "The Man of a Thousand Voices", though the appellation was bestowed on Blanc himself. Early life Solomon Hersh Frees was born to a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, on June 22, 1920. He grew up in the Albany Park neighborhood and attended Von Steuben Junior High School. He had an unusually wide four-octave voice range that enabled him to voice a scale from the thundering ''basso profundo'' of the unseen "Ghost Host" in the Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland in California and at Walt Disney World in Florida to the voice of the farmer who educates the Little Green Sprout (voic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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