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Gerry Anderson - The Man |
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Gerry Anderson Special Feature
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When World War II broke out, Anderson's older brother Lionel volunteered for the RAF and was posted to the United States. He often wrote to his family and one of these letters described a USAF airbase called Thunderbird Field, a name that stuck in his brother's memory. Gerry Anderson began his career in photography and after the war he secured a traineeship with the British Colonial Film Unit. In the mid-1950s Gerry, Arthur Provis, Reg Hill and John Read formed a new company, AP Films. AP films television ventures included The Adventures of Twizzle; Torchy the Battery Boy; Four Feather Falls and the well known futuristic children's television shows of Supercar; Fireball XL5; Stingray; Thunderbirds; Captain Scarlet; Joe 90 and The Secret Service. These shows involved specially modified marionettes, a process called "supermarionation" and they gained vast popularity in the 1960 and 1970 after AP films teamed up with ATV and Lew Grade. AP films, latterly renamed Century 21 Productions, enjoyed its greatest success with Thunderbirds and the series made Gerry world-famous, it was a major hit with young audiences and retains a huge and dedicated international following that spans several generations. Thunderbirds also set new standards in special effects, and the work of Derrick Medding and his team remains impressive even today. Barry Gray's superb theme and incidental music were another inextricable part of the series' appeal, and the stirring Thunderbirds march has become an enduring staple with brass and military bands throughout the world. In the 1970 Anderson turned to live action work, with UFO, the Protectors and Space 1999. In the early 1980s, Anderson and businessman Christopher Burr formed a new partnership, Anderson Burr Pictures Ltd. Under this banner Gerry made Terrahawks, Space Police and Dick Spanner. Space Police came to fruition in the 1995-6 series Space Precinct. Gerry was awarded an MBE in 2001, and is still working on new projects, including the CGI version of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons which debuted in 2005. He was originally approached to be involved in the 2004 feature film adaptation of Thunderbirds, directed by Jonathan Frakes, but he soon distanced himself from the project. Check out the links below for more Gerry Anderson related information. |
Gerry
Anderson was born Gerald Alexander Abrahams on 14 April 1929 in Hampstead,
London. The family name was changed by deed poll in 1939.
Gerry Anderson Special Feature
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