Oscar-nominated Ryan Larkin dead at 63

Posted:
Feb 16, 2007

Academy Award-nominated Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, who fought the twin demons of alcohol and drug abuse and ended up on the streets, died Wednesday night at 63.

Laurie Gordon, Larkin's manager and friend, said that he died in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, after a long battle with cancer. "Ryan was an inspiration to everyone who knew him and to generations of creative spirits in Canada and around the world," Gordon said in a statement issued Friday by MTV Canada.

"He was charismatic even in the face of his illness. The end of Ryan's life was one of the most beautiful final chapters ever written -- he died on Valentine's Day -- a day of love, no less. I will miss him enormously."

Born in 1943 in Montreal, Larkin died at 10:30 p.m. and was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, according to the Animation World Network.

The National Film Board of Canada produced his Oscar-nominated shorts Walking (1969) and Street Musique (1972).

Landreth was also the subject of Chris Landreth's 2004 NFB film Ryan, which won the Academy Award for Outstanding Animated Short Subject.

After living for years on welfare and panhandling, Larkin recently created his first original material in 30 years. He created three animated five-second "bumpers" as channel identity markers that aired on Christmas Day and Boxing Day on MTV.

With Gordon, a composer with the band Chiwawa, he also was working on a new animated film, Spare Change, about his experience as a Montreal panhandler. Spare Change was scheduled to be finished this year.

Larkin studied animation at the Art School of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts under Arthur Lismer, a member of the Group of Seven of influential Canadian painters.

In his prime, Larkin influenced a generation of animators with his films. His work was known for its psychedelic imagery and line figures that transformed into dreamlike shapes.

At age 19, he started working for the NFB, working closely with famed animation experimenter Norman McLaren. His work during his 14 years with the film board earned him dozens of awards worldwide.

A rising animator in the 1960s, he developed a unique style in such films as The Ball Resolver in Antac (1964), Syrinx(1965) and Cityscape(1966).

His next film, Walking, made him famous; Time magazine gave him writeups, and the Montreal Gazette called him the "Frank Zappa or George Harrison of Animation."

An independent 1968 film animated by Larkin, Potters at Work, earned him the Canadian Film Award -- later to be known as the Genie -- in the "Animated" category.

He provided animation and appeared in three small roles in Mort Ransen's 1974 live-action NFB film Running Time. In addition, he helped provide animation for the live-action Canadian drama Agency (1980), starring Robert Mitchum, Lee Majors and Valerie Perrine.

But starting in the mid-1970s, Larkin struggled with substance abuse until he lost everything and was living on the streets for spare change.

Larkin was "rediscovered" by director Landreth, whose CG film Ryan included interviews with Larkin and brought the filmmaker into the public eye once more. The Oscar-winning film showed Larkin living in a Montreal shelter, still fighting substance abuse, but displaying sparks of creativity.

The 3-D short film collected about 30 international awards, including the Academy Award for best animated short in 2005. But soon, it was life as usual for Larkin, although he was becoming known again.

Launched in Canada last year, MTV designed several channel IDs based on Larkin's animation style before asking him to make several spots. Larkin said in a December interview that he had full artistic control for the MTV spots, which he described as "cine-bumpers."

He drew each image frame by frame, using old animation technology.

"If you're wondering what a cine-bumper is, think of it as that five-second space between you and the next car," he said. "They're little wedges that help programmers shuffle their shows. I had fun and I'm proud to be a part of the MTV creative team."

Larkin said that he had given up several of his bad habits, including drinking, to become an animator once more.