Marcel Delgado
Encyclopedia
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
and model-maker. His technique revolutionized the stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
film industry
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
. He is best known for his work on the 1933 film King Kong
King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
.
Prior to Delgado, stop motion models where typically made from clay
Clay animation
Clay animation or claymation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually Plasticine clay....
, which was difficult to adjust between shots. Delgado built a skeleton for his models. This skeleton was made from Dural
Duralumin
Duralumin is the trade name of one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The main alloying constituents are copper, manganese, and magnesium. A commonly used modern equivalent of this alloy type is AA2024, which contains 4.4% copper, 1.5% magnesium, 0.6% manganese and 93.5%...
and it was then filled in with foam rubber or cotton cloth and covered with latex to serve as skin, giving his models a more natural and realistic look, while simultaneously making it easier to handle them. Sometimes he also incorporated an inflatable bladder that helped him simulate breathing.
Early life
Delgado's family moved to CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, in 1910, running away from the Mexican Revolution. He first started sculpting at age 6.
As his family was very poor, Delgado worked most of the time, leaving school behind. He did not learn English until he was 17, a fact that more often than not made his getting a job difficult. In 1921 he split his time working in a convenience store and taking art lessons at the Otis Arts Institute, where he also got a part-time job to pay for his lessons.
Career
While he worked in the Institute he met Willis O'BrienWillis O'Brien
Willis Harold O'Brien was an Irish American pioneering motion picture special effects artist who perfected and specialized in stop-motion animation. He was affectionately known to his family and close friends as "Obie"....
, who worked in special effects for movies in Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
. O'Brien was a specialist in building miniature creatures and sets as well as in stop-motion animation. Impressed by Delgado's work, he tried to lure him away to work with him on several occasions, offering four-times more than the salary Delgado was making at the time. The answer was always the same, "I don't wanna work in the movies. I want to be an artist".
When O'Brien was about to tackle the biggest challenge in his career, The Lost World
The Lost World (1925 film)
The Lost World is a 1925 silent film adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel of the same name. The movie was produced by First National Pictures, a large Hollywood studio at the time, and stars Wallace Beery as Professor Challenger. This version was directed by Harry O...
, he decided to make one last attempt to gain the services of the young Mexican sculptor. He invited him to spend a day in the First National
First National
First National was an association of independent theater owners in the United States that expanded from exhibiting movies to distributing them, and eventually to producing them as a movie studio, called First National Pictures, Inc. It later merged with Warner Bros.-Early history:The First National...
studio where he was working. He walked Delgado through the whole place and then took him to the workshop where he did the all the miniatures' work. "Welcome to your studio", he said, and eventually that became true. Delgado accepted the offer to work with O'Brien just to be able to work in such a place. Years later Delgado said the work area "was a clean, vast and organized place with cameras, lights, and all kind of materials. It was any artist's dream".
Delgado and O'Brien worked together for many years and soon became one of the most respected special effects crews in Hollywood. Their most famous and groundbreaking collaboration was the original King Kong
King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
, released in 1933. They refined these techniques in 1949's Mighty Joe Young, which garnered an Academy Award for special effects (awarded to O'Brien).
Delgado retired in 1965 and died on November 26, 1976 in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California.
Films
O'Brien and Delgado first work together was in The Lost World, but they became famous a few years later with King KongKing Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
(1933). Kong's success was followed by a failed sequel, Son of Kong. They also worked on movies like The Last Days of Pompeii
The Last Days of Pompeii (1935 film)
The Last Days of Pompeii is an RKO Radio Pictures film starring Preston Foster and directed by Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper, creators of the original King Kong...
(1935) etc.