Ryan Larkin

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Ryan Larkin (b. July 31, 1943, Montreal, Quebec - d. February 14, 2007, Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec) was a Canadian animator who rose to fame with the psychedelic 1969 Oscar-nominated short Walking and the acclaimed Street Musique (1972).

1 NFB years
2 Home life and education
3 Ryan, the film
4 New work
5 His passing
6 See also
7 Additional external links

[edit] NFB years

At the National Film Board of Canada, Ryan learned animation techniques from the ground-breaking and award-winning animator, Norman McLaren. He made two acclaimed short animated films, Cityscape and Syrinx, before going on to create Walking and Street Musique.

He also contributed art work and animation effects to NFB films including the 1974 feature Running Time, directed by Mort Ransen, in which Ryan also played three bit parts.

Ryan left the NFB in the late 70s.

[edit] Home life and education

Ryan Larkin's father was an abusive alcoholic^{[citation needed]}. Ryan Larkin had attended the Art School of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts where he studied under Arthur Lismer (a member of the Group of Seven) before working at the National Film Board of Canada from the early 1960s until 1978.

Image still from Ryan

[edit] Ryan, the film

In recent years Ryan was plagued by a downward spiral of drug abuse, alcoholism and homelessness, but recently found himself back in the limelight when a 14-minute computer-animated documentary on his life, Ryan by fellow Canadian animator Chris Landreth, won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film and screened to acclaim at film festivals around the world. Alter Egos (2004), directed by Laurence Green, is a documentary about the making of Ryan that includes interviews with both Larkin and Chris Landreth as well as with various people who knew Ryan at the peak of his own success.

[edit] New work

Since 2005, Larkin had been working with composer Laurie Gordon of the band Chiwawa on his new animated film entitled Spare Change (his first in decades). Together they formed "Spare Change Productions" and were seeking a co-production partner and funding for the film. The film would have featured three Chiwawa tunes which Larkin would have created animation for, including Do It For Me from the 2005 CD Bright [1].

Larkin, who had panhandled outside Montreal Schwartz's deli, also appeared in a documentary on the famous restaurant, Chez Schwartz, directed by Garry Beitel [2].

In December 2006, Larkin created three five-second bumpers for MTV in Canada, and said that he had given up some bad habits, including drinking, in order to better focus on his animating career [3].