Today is film composer
Bernard Herrmann's 100th birthday.
Eddie on Film has a
two-part tribute. Among the news sites noting it are the Washington Post (
Daring and original, Bernard Herrmann changed movie music), the WSJ (
'Psycho' Maestro at 100), and
CBS News. The Minnesota Opera's fine audio series,
Bernard Herrmann: A Celebration of His Life and Music, is quite excellent. Don't forget to pay a visit to
The Bernard Herrman Society.
Having his 91st birthday today is
Ray Harryhausen, the movies' greatest special effects artist, for whom Herrmann scored
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Three Worlds of Gulliver, Mysterious Island, and Jason and the Argonauts. Was Jason's stunning battle with the skeleton warriors the scene that first made me love movies as a kid? It might have been, yep. It was iconic then and still thrills now.
Herrmann + Harryhausen =
Oh, also, while I'm thinking of it: Here's a video compilation of
every Ray Harryhausen animated creature in feature films, presented in chronological order.
