Willis H O'brien U39

Willis H O'brien was born Oakland, California 1915 - 1962
he was a American motion picture special effects and stop- motion animation pioneer, who was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history," and is best remembered for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1925) and Mighty Joe Young (1949) for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Willis H O'brien was working on king kong a the day he received back the first printed footage of King Kong (1933) in motion he noticed that the fur covering the puppet moved because it was disturbed by his fingers during filming. He had to show the footage to the film's producer that day and was worried his boss would notice this supposed mistake and fire him. However, upon showing the producer this footage, the man applauded his ability and fine attention to detail, exclaiming that he was amazed that he even managed to make Kong's fur blow about in the wind.
Willis H O'Brien first got married with Hazel Collette, was doomed from the start it was a troubled and uneasy marriage. By 1930 it ended, not before having two sons, William and Willis JR. Hazel suffered form tuberculosis and was heavily sedated, the disease genetically spread to William and blinded him. in fall of 1933 she turned a gun to herself. She shot and killed her two sons and attempted to kill herself but later fail because she survived the incident but then died from cancer and tuberculosis soon afterwards.