RIP Ray Harryhausen

Special effects pioneer Ray Harryhausen passed away yesterday in London at the age of 92.  You’ll be hard pressed to find anyone who works in the SF genre (whether writing or filmmaking) who doesn’t owe a considerable debt to Harryhausen in one form or another.  Who doesn’t remember the first time seeing cowboys lasso a T-rex in The Valley of Gwangi?  Or a UFO crashing into the Washington Monument from Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers?  Or a giant prehistoric octopus bringing down the Golden Gate Bridge in It Came From Beneath the Sea?  The list goes on.  Mighty Joe Young, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, these were all seared into my psyche when I was five or six years old.  Not to mention the films he’s most acclaimed for:  Jason and the Argonauts and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.