28 February 2008

[sf] Oregon's Connection to Pál's 1953 War Of The Worlds

1397. A couple of interesting Oregon-related tidbits I tripped over on the way to completing the last missive:


Byron Haskin, the director, was an Oregonian. He was born in Portland in 1899 and died in 1984. His career was notable in that he collaborated with Pál several times, as well as being a special effects engineer of considerable note (he also directed Robinson Crusoe on Mars, which also repurposed the Martian war-whompers as alien mining-machines in that movie).


Robert Cornthwaite, credited as "Bob Cornthwaite", the actor who portrayed Pacific Tech scientist Dr. Pryor, was not only born in St. Helens (in 1917, died only recently in 2006) was a dependable "learned" type character actor who not only also played a supporting role in Colossus: The Forbin Project as part of the Colossus Programming Office staff but also made a memorable turn in Howard Hawks' The Thing From Another Planet. His first role was a part in Billy Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, at Reed College in 1936. That's right; he was a Reedie.


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