Alan Maley

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Alan Maley (born January 7, 1931 in Surrey , England , † May 13, 1995 in Belvedere , California ) was a British painter and special effects artist who created matte paintings for feature films . His work for Walt Disney productions is best known .

Life

Origin and education

Alan Maley came from an artistic family that also encouraged his artistic inclinations at an early age. After attending Reigate Art College, he was faced with the choice of either switching to the Royal Academy School in London or completing an apprenticeship in the film industry. He chose the latter and completed a five-year apprenticeship at Shepperton Studios and Pinewood Studios , initially as a classical stage painter . However, his education was interrupted when he fell ill with polio . During the year of convalescence , he also had to learn to walk again. He realized that he could no longer muster the physical effort required to paint large sets. At his training centers, however, he got the chance to continue as a follow-up draftsman and eventually became a mat artist.

As a mat artist in the film business

One of the more elaborate film productions in which Maley was significantly involved as a Matte artist is the literary film adaptation of Becket (1964) with its many historical scenes. In Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strange, or How I Learned to Love the Bomb (1964), Maley was responsible for the technical realization of the well-known scene in which Major Kong, played by Slim Pickens , rides the bomb towards the target.

While working on The Adventures of Captain Grant , Walt Disney and his mat department head Peter Ellenshaw recognized the extraordinary talent of Alan Maley, and Disney then brought him to the USA in 1964, where he worked in the mat department of the Disney studios was. When Ellenshaw retired in 1966 as head of the studio's mat department in order to devote himself more to painting, Maley succeeded him. One of the best-known Disney films, in whose special effects he played a leading role, is the first film in the Herbie film series, A Great Beetle , which contains numerous matte paintings, including the area in and around San Francisco . For his work on the Fantasy - Movie Musical Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) Alan Maley 1972 along with Eustace Lycett and Danny Lee with the Oscar award for "Best Special Effects".

Other major Disney productions he worked on were Big Boy (1973), Herbie Big in Ride and Island at the End of the World (both 1974). In 1974 Alan Maley left the Disney studios. The new head of the mat department was now Peter Ellenshaw's son Harrison Ellenshaw , whom Maley had previously trained from 1970.

However, Maley did not completely withdraw from the film business. He helped George Lucas found Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and supervised the mat work for ILM for the films Hunter of the Lost Treasure and The Dragon Slayer (both 1981). He and his cousin Peter Lamont also created the special effects for the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Fascinated by the Victorian era as a painter

Alan Maley had already started creating oil paintings during his years in film . In contrast to his Matte colleague Peter Ellenshaw, who almost exclusively captured landscape scenes without people in his “timeless” paintings, he was particularly fascinated by the Victorian age with its architecture, its inventions and fashions, but also, in a certain way, the fin de siècle . Maley found this epoch to be much more elegant and tasteful than later decades until the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries - no wonder that he called his pictures accordingly, for example, A Gracious Era . For his Impressionist style paintings, Maley combined historical views of places - often of Paris or New York City - with everyday or special encounters between people. But he also created portraits and paintings with individuals in more intimate moments, such as Love Letter (1986). His works found fans around the world and are still in demand as art prints to this day (2012) .

Alan Maley died suddenly and unexpectedly after a heart attack on May 13, 1995 in Belvedere, California.

Works

Filmography (selection)

  • 1959: Too Many Crooks
  • 1962: The Adventures of Captain Grant (In Search of the Castaways)
  • 1964: Becket (Becket)
  • 1964: Dr. Strangely, or How I Learned to Love the Bomb (Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)
  • 1967: The Happiest Millionaire
  • 1968: The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band
  • 1968: The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit
  • 1968: A great beetle (The Love Bug)
  • 1969: A cheeky badger in the maize patch (Rascal)
  • 1970: King of the Grizzlies
  • 1970: The Boatniks
  • 1970: Rauhes Land (The Wild Country)
  • 1971: The Barefoot Executive
  • 1971: Cowboy John - The Last Hero in the Wild West (Scandalous John)
  • 1971: The daring witch in her flying bed (Bedknobs and Broomsticks)
  • 1972: Inheritance in White (Snowball Express)
  • 1973: Big Boy (The World's Greatest Athlete)
  • 1973: Mystery in Dracula's Castle (TV movie)
  • 1974: Return of the Big Cat (TV movie)
  • 1974: Herbie Rides Again (Herbie Rides Again)
  • 1974: The Island at the Top of the World (The Iceland at the Top of the World)
  • 1975: Escape to Witch Mountain
  • 1977: The Spy Who loved me (The Spy Who Loved Me)
  • 1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Raiders of the Lost Ark)
  • 1981: The Dragon Slayer (Dragonslayer)

Paintings (selection)

  • Bridges of Paris in Winter , 1968, 71.1 × 96.5 cm, oil on canvas
  • St. Louis Levee & Eads Bridge , approx. 1980, 44.5 × 58.5 cm, oil on canvas
  • Love Letter , 1986, 61 × 76.2 cm, oil on canvas
  • Winter on the River , 1989, 45.7 × 61 cm, oil on canvas
  • A Gracious Era
  • Sentimental Journey
  • Festive Occasion
  • Sunday afternoon
  • Victorian trio
  • Summer Elegance
  • The Window Seat
  • Winter carousel
  • Winter impressions
  • Sleigh Bells
  • Sleigh Race
  • In harmony
  • New Year's Eve
  • Between Friends
  • The boating party
  • Cafe Royale
  • Day dreams
  • An Elegant Affair
  • English rose
  • Fashionable parade
  • Circle of Love
  • Fifth avenue
  • Girl in gold
  • Southern Belles
  • Summer carousel

literature

  • Alan Maley (pictures) and Janna C. Walkup (text): The Victorian Lady. Paintings by Alan Maley . Harvest House, Eugene (Oregon) 1998, 80 pp. ISBN 1-56507-865-9

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Short biography at Victorian Impressions ( Memento from April 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive ); Retrieved February 23, 2012
  2. ↑ Sandra Brennan: Alan Maley - Full Biography. In: All Movie Guide. The New York Times, 2010, accessed February 25, 2015 (English, short biography).
  3. ↑ a b According to the timeline of The Powell & Pressburger Pages ; Retrieved February 23, 2012
  4. ↑ a b Biographical information from Imdb ; Retrieved February 23, 2012
  5. ^ Alan Maley at the Framing Fox Art Gallery ; Retrieved February 23, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Maley, Alan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British painter and special effects artist
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Surrey , England
DATE OF DEATH May 13, 1995
Place of death Belvedere , California