This week in Obituaries: Ray Harryhausen, Marge Groening

This week, we lose two icons in animation. One whom was a trailblazer for the art of stop-mo, the other the named inspiration for one of TV’s most iconic animated characters.

RIP Ray Harryhausen

Had it not been for Ray Harryhausen, we would not have had shows like Robot Chicken, Celebrity Deathmatch, or pretty much anything stop-motion animated as he was doing it before we had computers that can do it now. Ray was born in Los Angeles and would later go on and help bring to life some of Hollywood’s BIGGEST features including Jason and the Argonauts. Ray passed away on May 7th in London, England and is survived by his wife Diana.

RIP Marge Groening

Marge was the mother of Simpsons creator Matt Groening and was the inspiration for Marge Simpson. As a matter of fact, all of Matt’s family were used as inspirations for the Simpsons with the exception of Bart. That said, the name Marge Simpson is synonymous as being America’s mom and as a result we all owe Marge Groening a debt of gratitude. Marge was 94.