A. Arnold Gillespie

A. Arnold Gillespie

Birth : 1899-10-14, El Paso, Texas, USA

Death : 1978-05-03

History

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [Not to be confused with Arnold Gillespie, an Animator for Fleischer Studios, MGM and John Sutherland.] Albert Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie (October 14, 1899 – May 3, 1978) was an American cinema special effects artist. He was born on October 14, 1899 in El Paso, Texas. Gillespie joined MGM as a set designer in 1925, a year after it was founded. He was educated at Columbia University and the Arts Students League. His first project was the silent film Ben-Hur, released that same year. He worked at the studio in various capacities until 1962. In 1936, he became the head of MGM's Special Effects Department. He died on May 3, 1978 in Los Angeles, California.

Profile

A. Arnold Gillespie

Movies

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 50 Years of Magic
Self (archive footage)
Documentary about the making of the 1939 MGM classic film The Wizard of Oz. Includes interviews of cast and crew members, their families and fans of the film.
The Unsinkable Molly Brown
Visual Effects
The buoyant Molly Brown has survived the first crisis of her life—a flood. Sixteen years later she sets out to make her way in the world. She assures the Leadville saloon keeper that she can sing and play the piano, and learns quickly. Soon she marries Johnny Brown, who in a few years will be able to replace the original cigar wrapper wedding ring with a replica in gold and gemstones. The Browns head for Europe and bring a few crowned heads back to Denver for a party that turns into a ballroom brawl. Molly goes to Europe alone, returning on the Titanic. She didn't survive a flood as a baby for the story to end here.
The Prize
Visual Effects
A group of Nobel laureates descends on Stockholm to accept their awards. Among them is American novelist Andrew Craig, a former literary luminary now writing pulp detective stories to earn a living. Craig, who is infamous for his drinking and womanizing, formulates a wild theory that physics prize winner Dr. Max Stratman has been replaced by an impostor, embroiling Craig and his chaperone in a Cold War kidnapping plot.
How the West Was Won
Visual Effects
The epic tale of the development of the American West from the 1830s through the Civil War to the end of the century, as seen through the eyes of one pioneer family.
Atlantis: The Lost Continent
Special Effects
A Greek Fisherman brings an Atlantean Princess back to her homeland which is the mythical city of Atlantis. He is enslaved for his trouble. The King is being manipulated by an evil sorcerer who is bent on using a natural resource of Atlantis to take over the world. The Atlanteans, or rather the slaves of Atlantis, are forced to mine a crystalline material which absorbs the suns rays. These crystals can then be used for warmth. The misuse of science has created weapons out of the crystals that can fire a heat ray to destroy whatever it touches.
Cimarron
Special Effects
The epic story of a family that's involved in the Oklahoma Land Rush in 1889.
Bells Are Ringing
Special Effects
Ella Peterson works in the basement office of Susanswerphone, a telephone answering service. She listens in on others' lives and adds some interest to her own humdrum existence by adopting different identities for her clients. They include an out-of-work Method actor, a dentist with musical yearnings, and in particular playwright Jeffrey Moss, who is suffering from writer's block and desperately needs a muse.
Ben-Hur
Visual Effects
In 25 AD,Judah Ben-Hur, a Jew in ancient Judea, opposes the occupying Roman empire. Falsely accused by a Roman childhood friend-turned-overlord of trying to kill the Roman governor, he is put into slavery and his mother and sister are taken away as prisoners. Three years later and freed by a grateful Roman galley commander whom he has rescued from drowning, he becomes an expert charioteer for Rome, all the while plotting to return to Judea, find and rescue his family, and avenge himself on his former friend. All the while, the form and work of Jesus move in the background of his life...
North by Northwest
Special Effects
Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
Green Mansions
Special Effects
A young Venezuelan idealist flees his native land to escape a revolution. Hoping to find peace, he goes to the mountains and the forests of the Amazon. There he encounters Rima, the Bird Girl, an orphan living a life of nature, who is feared by a local jungle tribe.
Don't Go Near the Water
Special Effects
Madison Avenue-trained Navy men handle public relations on a South Pacific island during World War II.
Jailhouse Rock
Special Effects
After serving time for manslaughter, young Vince Everett becomes a teenage rock star.
Gun Glory
Special Effects
An ex-gunslinger (Stewart Granger) shunned by townsfolk is the only one who knows how to stop a ruthless cattleman.
Ten Thousand Bedrooms
Special Effects
In this musical-comedy, Dean Martin plays an American hotel mogul who becomes smitten with a young Italian woman (Anna Maria Alberghetti) when buying a hotel in Rome. To marry this gal, he has to get her three older sisters married off.
The Wings of Eagles
Special Effects
The story of Frank W. "Spig" Wead - a Navy-flyer turned screenwriter.
The Great American Pastime
Special Effects
Bruce Hallerton becomes coach of the Panthers, a little league baseball team. The fact that an attractive widow has her son in the team causes problems with his wife.
The Opposite Sex
Special Effects
Former radio singer Kay learns from her gossipy friends that her husband, Steve, has had an affair with chorus girl Crystal. Devastated, Kay tries to ignore the information, but when Crystal performs one of her musical numbers at a charity benefit, she breaks down and goes to Reno to file for divorce. However, when she hears that gold-digging Crystal is making Steve unhappy, Kay resolves to get her husband back. The Opposite Sex is a remake of the 1939 comedy The Women.
High Society
Special Effects
Childhood friends Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven got married and quickly divorced. Now Tracy is about to marry again, this time to a shrewd social-climbing businessman. C.K. still loves her. Spy magazine blackmails Tracy's family by threatening to reveal her playboy father's exploits if not allowed to cover the wedding. A remake of the 1940 rom com The Philadelphia Story.
Gaby
Special Effects
A ballerina resorts to prostitution when her fiance is reported killed in World War II.
Jupiter's Darling
Special Effects
Rome is on the verge of being conquered by Hannibal. While Rome's ruler, Fabius Maximus, plots a defense against Hannibal's armies, Fabius' fiancée, Amytis, is curious about the fearless conqueror. Amytis travels to Hannibal's camp just to get a look at him, but she ends up being captured. However, she is instantly smitten by the Carthaginian commander, so she tries to shift his attentions away from Rome -- and to her instead.
Her Twelve Men
Special Effects
An inexperienced female teacher is hired at a private elite school for boys where she raises a few eyebrows among the all-male faculty.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Special Effects
In 1850 Oregon, when a backwoodsman brings a wife home to his farm, his six brothers decide that they want to get married too.
Executive Suite
Special Effects
When the head of a large manufacturing firm dies suddenly from a stroke, his vice-presidents vie to see who will replace him.
The Last Time I Saw Paris
Special Effects
Reporter Charles Wills, in Paris to cover the end of World War II, falls for the beautiful Helen Ellswirth following a brief flirtation with her sister, Marion. After he and Helen marry, Charles pursues his novelistic ambition while supporting his new bride with a deadening job at a newspaper wire service. But when an old investment suddenly makes the family wealthy, their marriage begins to unravel — until a sudden tragedy changes everything.
All the Brothers Were Valiant
Special Effects
In the South Pacific islands, two brothers, one good and one bad, fight over the same girl and over a bag of pearls.
Bright Road
Special Effects
Teachers at an all-black school fight to save a problem child.
I Love Melvin
Special Effects
Melvin Hoover, a budding photographer for Look magazine, accidentally bumps into a young actress named Judy LeRoy in the park. They start to talk and Melvin soon offers to do a photo spread of her. His boss, however, has no intention of using the photos. Melvin wants to marry Judy, but her father would rather she marry dull and dependable Harry Black. As a last resort, Melvin promises to get Judy's photo on the cover of the next issue of Look, a task easier said than done.
Battle Circus
Special Effects
A young Army nurse, Lt Ruth McGara, newly assigned to the 66th MASH during the Korean War, attracts the sexual attention of the unit's commander Dr. (MAJ) Jed Webbe. Webbe, who has a drinking problem, at first wants a "no strings" relationship. McGara is warned by the other nurses of Webbe's womanizing ways. Despite these initial handicaps, their love flourishes against a background of war, enemy attacks, death and injury. The relationship deepens and uplifts both characters.
The Bad and the Beautiful
Special Effects
Told in flashback form, the film traces the rise and fall of a tough, ambitious Hollywood producer, Jonathan Shields, as seen through the eyes of various acquaintances, including a writer, James Lee Bartlow; a star, Georgia Lorrison; and a director, Fred Amiel. He is a hard-driving, ambitious man who ruthlessly uses everyone on the way to becoming one of Hollywood's top movie makers.
Desperate Search
Special Effects
A man (Howard Keel), his wife (Jane Greer) and his famous-aviator ex-wife (Patricia Medina) search for their two children lost with a cougar.
Fearless Fagan
Special Effects
A young man brings his pet lion with him when he's drafted into the army. Comedy.
Glory Alley
Special Effects
A New Orleans boxer backs out of a bout and leaves his girlfriend for Korea.
Carbine Williams
Special Effects
David Marshall Williams is sent to a prison farm where he works in the tool shop and eventually develops the precursor of the famous M-1 Carbine automatic rifle used in World War II.
Talk About a Stranger
Special Effects
Small-town gossips rage over the arrival of a mysterious stranger.
The Wild North
Special Effects
In the Canadian mountains, a trapper goes on the run accused of a crime and is pursued by a rugged and determined lawman of the Royal North-West Mounted Police.
Callaway Went Thataway
Special Effects
Two smart marketing people resurrect some old films starring cowboy Smoky Callaway and put them on television. The films are a big hit and the star is in demand. Unfortunately no one can find him. When a lookalike sends in a photo, the marketing team hires him to impersonate Callaway. Things get sticky when the real Callaway eventually shows up.
The Strip
Special Effects
Drummer Stanley Maxton moves to Los Angeles with dreams of opening his own club, but falls in with a gangster and a nightclub dancer and ends up accused of murder.
The Tall Target
Special Effects
A detective tries to prevent the assassination of President-elect Abraham Lincoln during a train ride headed for Washington in 1861.
Inside Straight
Special Effects
A tycoon rises to the top in 19th-century San Francisco through greed and corruption.
The Magnificent Yankee
Special Effects
Biography of celebrated American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Kim
Special Effects
During the British Raj, the orphan of a British soldier poses as a Hindu and is torn between his loyalty to a Buddhist mystic and aiding the English secret service.
To Please a Lady
Special Effects
Mike Brannon is a former war hero turned midget car racer. His ruthless racing tactics have made him successful but the fans consider him a villain and boo him mercilessly. Independent, beautiful reporter Regina Forbes tries to interview him but is put off by his gruff chauvinism, and when Brannon's daredevil tactics cause the death of a fellow driver, he finds himself a pariah in the sport thanks to her articles. When she finds him earning money as a barnstorming daredevil driver hoping for a comeback, they begin to become mutually attracted.
Adam's Rib
Special Effects
When a woman attempts to kill her uncaring husband, prosecutor Adam Bonner gets the case. Unfortunately for him his wife Amanda (who happens to be a lawyer too) decides to defend the woman in court. Amanda uses everything she can to win the case and Adam gets mad about it. As a result, their perfect marriage is disturbed by everyday quarrels.
The Stratton Story
Special Effects
Star major league pitcher Monty Stratton loses a leg in a hunting accident, but becomes determined to leave the game on his own terms.
The Kissing Bandit
Special Effects
Ricardo, the milquetoast son of a Mexican bandit, would rather lead a quiet life in Boston. But the family would rather that he follow in his father's footsteps and become "The Kissing Bandit".
Desire Me
Special Effects
A war widow falls in love with the man who informed her of her husband's death.
The Sea of Grass
Special Effects
A St. Louis woman marries a New Mexico cattleman who is seen as a tyrant by the locals.
Green Dolphin Street
Visual Effects
Sophie loved Edmund, but he left town when her parents forced her to marry wealthy Octavius. Years later, Edmund returns with his son, William. Sophie's daughter, Marguerite, and William fall in love. Marguerite's sister, Marianne, also loves William. Timothy, a lowly carpenter, secretly loves Marianne. He kills a man in a fight, and Edmund helps him flee to New Zealand. William deserts inadvertently from the navy, and also flees in disgrace to New Zealand, where he and Timothy start a profitable business. One night, drunk, William writes Octavius, demanding his daughter's hand; but, being drunk, he asks for the wrong sister.
Green Dolphin Street
Special Effects
Sophie loved Edmund, but he left town when her parents forced her to marry wealthy Octavius. Years later, Edmund returns with his son, William. Sophie's daughter, Marguerite, and William fall in love. Marguerite's sister, Marianne, also loves William. Timothy, a lowly carpenter, secretly loves Marianne. He kills a man in a fight, and Edmund helps him flee to New Zealand. William deserts inadvertently from the navy, and also flees in disgrace to New Zealand, where he and Timothy start a profitable business. One night, drunk, William writes Octavius, demanding his daughter's hand; but, being drunk, he asks for the wrong sister.
Lady in the Lake
Special Effects
Private eye Phillip Marlowe wants to get out of the detective racket and into crime writing. But when he's called to the office of editor Adrienne Fromsett, it's not to talk about his story ideas — she wants him to locate the missing wife of her boss, Mr. Kingsby. The assignment quickly becomes complicated when bodies start turning up
Up Goes Maisie
Special Effects
A showgirl working for an inventor battles crooks, who want to steal his ideas.
They Were Expendable
Special Effects
Shortly after Pearl Harbor, a squadron of PT-boat crews in the Philippines must battle the Navy brass between skirmishes with the Japanese. The title says it all about the Navy's attitude towards the PT-boats and their crews.
Son of Lassie
Special Effects
Laddie (Son of Lassie) and his master are trapped in Norway during WW2 - has he inherited his mothers famous courage?
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo
Visual Effects
In the wake of Pearl Harbor, a young lieutenant leaves his expectant wife to volunteer for a secret bombing mission which will take the war to the Japanese homeland.
Mrs. Parkington
Special Effects
In this family saga, Mrs. Parkington recounts the story of her life, beginning as a hotel maid in frontier Nevada where she is swept off her feet by mine owner and financier Augustus Parkington. He moves them to New York, tries to remake her into a society woman, and establishes their home among the wealthiest of New York's high society. Family and social life is not always peaceful, however, and she guides us, in flashbacks, through the rises and falls of the Parkington family fortunes.
Maisie Goes to Reno
Visual Effects
A Brooklyn showgirl gets mixed up in a divorce between a soldier and his wife.
The White Cliffs of Dover
Special Effects
American Susan travels with her father to England for a vacation. Invited to a society ball, Susan meets Sir John Ashwood and marries him after a whirlwind romance. However, she never quite adjusts to life as a new member of the British gentry. At the outbreak of World War I, John is sent to the trenches and never returns. When her son goes off to fight in World War II, Susan fears the same tragic fate may befall him too.
An American Romance
Special Effects
A European immigrant becomes a master of industry but almost loses his family.
A Guy Named Joe
Special Effects
A cocky Air Force pilot stationed in England during World War II falls for a daring female flier. After he's killed on a mission, he is sent back to Earth by heavenly General with a new assignment.
The Man from Down Under
Special Effects
An Australian blowhard raises two orphaned children as his own in the years leading up to WWII.
Bataan
Special Effects
During Japan's invasion of the Philippines in 1942, Capt. Henry Lassiter, Sgt. Bill Dane and a diverse group of American soldiers are ordered to destroy and hold a strategic bridge in order to delay the Japanese forces and allow Gen. MacArthur time to secure Bataan. When the Japanese soldiers begin to rebuild the bridge and advance, the group struggles with not only hunger, sickness and gunfire, but also the knowledge that there is likely no relief on the way.
Mrs. Miniver
Special Effects
English middle-class family, The Minivers, experience life in the first months of World War II.
Tarzan's New York Adventure
Special Effects
Circus owner Buck Rand kidnaps Boy to perform in his show. He forces a pilot to fly him, Boy and his animal trainer out of the jungle. Tarzan and Jane follow them to New York.
Comrade X
Special Effects
An American reporter smuggling news out of Soviet Moscow is blackmailed into helping a beautiful Communist leave the country.
Boom Town
Special Effects
McMasters and Sand come to oil towns to get rich. Betsy comes West intending to marry Sand but marries McMasters instead. Getting rich and losing it all teaches McMasters and Sand the value of personal ties.
The Wizard of Oz
Visual Effects
Young Dorothy finds herself in a magical world where she makes friends with a lion, a scarecrow and a tin man as they make their way along the yellow brick road to talk with the Wizard and ask for the things they miss most in their lives. The Wicked Witch of the West is the only thing that could stop them.
The Wizard of Oz
Special Effects
Young Dorothy finds herself in a magical world where she makes friends with a lion, a scarecrow and a tin man as they make their way along the yellow brick road to talk with the Wizard and ask for the things they miss most in their lives. The Wicked Witch of the West is the only thing that could stop them.
Too Hot to Handle
Special Effects
While in Shanghai reporting on the Sino-Japanese war, Chris Hunter, a shrewd news reporter, meets pilot Alma Harding. She does not trust him, but he manages to hire her as his assistant. During an adventurous expedition through the jungles of South America, her opinion of him begins to change.
Test Pilot
Special Effects
Jim is a test pilot. His wife Ann and best friend Gunner try their best to keep him sober. But the life of a test pilot is anything but safe.
Captains Courageous
Art Direction
Harvey, the arrogant and spoiled son of an indulgent absentee-father, falls overboard from a transatlantic steamship and is rescued by a fishing vessel on the Grand Banks. Harvey fails to persuade them to take him ashore, nor convince the crew of his wealth. The captain offers him a low-paid job, until they return to port, as part of the crew that turns him into a mature, considerate young man.
The Good Earth
Visual Effects
China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The arranged marriage between Wang Lung, a humble farmer, and O-Lan, a domestic slave, will endure the many hardships of life over the years; but the temptations of a fragile prosperity will endanger their love and the survival of their entire family.
Mutiny on the Bounty
Art Direction
Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on avenging his captors.
Operator 13
Art Direction
American Civil War, 1862. After the disaster of the Second Battle of Bull Run, Major Allen, chief of the Secret Service of the Union, asks actress Gail Loveless to become one of his operators and infiltrate enemy territory.
Tarzan and His Mate
Art Direction
Harry Holt returns to Africa with his friend Martin Arlington to head up a large ivory expedition.
Laughing Boy
Art Direction
A young Navajo defies tribal custom to marry an outcast.
Night Flight
Special Effects
Story of South American mail pilots, and the dangers they face flying at night.
The Crowd
Settings
John, an ambitious but undisciplined New York City office worker, meets and marries Mary. They start a family, struggle to cope with marital stress, financial setbacks, and tragedy, all while lost amid the anonymous, pitiless throngs of the big city.
Buttons
Set Designer
Working as a pageboy on an ocean liner, a street orphan and his friend Slugger end up on the wrong side of the ship's captain when they try to tell him that his wife is cheating on him with other members of the crew. The boys end up in deeper trouble, after they are thrown in the brig and the ship starts sinking...
Tell It to the Marines
Settings
U.S. Marine Sergeant O'Hara has his hands full training raw recruits, one of whom, 'Skeets' Burns, is a particular thorn in his side. If Burns's lackadaisical approach to the military were not bad enough, he also makes advances on nurse Nora Dale, whom Sergeant O'Hara secretly loves. Nora is oblivious to O'Hara's feelings and is attracted to the handsome 'Skeet.' But an indiscretion turns her against him, and it takes an expedition to China and a battle with a warlord's bandit brigade to sort things out among the nurse and her two Marines.
Upstage
Art Direction
Dolly Havens, a small-town girl with big-town ambitions that are larger than her talents, hooks up with Johnny Storm, a vaudeville performer, whose talents make the act a success. Dolly, thinking she is the reason, meets a handsome leading man and joins up with him but, before long, he discovers 'she ain't a trouper' and she is soon performing with 4th-class acts in Tank Town America
La Bohème
Settings
It is 1830 in Paris and the rent is due, but the money is not there. An article here, a painting there and a monkey with a cup gives them enough money for the rent, but not for food. Fortunately, Musette from downstairs has enough food for everyone including Mimi - the poor little waif from next door who Rodolphe has met. But Count Paul also has his lusting eye on Mimi and uses her embroidery to get close to her. Rodolphe and Mimi fall in love and Mimi works endlessly to support Rodolphe who is writing his play with a new found passion. He does not know that he has been discharged from writing for 'Dog and Cat Fanciers'. Mimi wants to get his play produced and Count Paul offers to help, but there is a terrible fight when Rodolphe thinks that Mimi is faithless to him with Count Paul. After the fight, he seeks out a doctor as she is sick, but she has left when Rodolphe returns and will stay away until his play is finished.
The Blackbird
Settings
Two thieves, the Blackbird and West End Bertie, fall in love with the same girl, a French nightclub performer named Fifi. Each man tries to outdo the other to win her heart.
Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
Special Effects
Erstwhile childhood friends, Judah Ben-Hur and Messala meet again as adults, this time with Roman officer Messala as conqueror and Judah as a wealthy, though conquered, Israelite. A slip of a brick during a Roman parade causes Judah to be sent off as a galley slave, his property confiscated and his mother and sister imprisoned. Years later, as a result of his determination to stay alive and his willingness to aid his Roman master, Judah returns to his homeland an exalted and wealthy Roman athlete. Unable to find his mother and sister, and believing them dead, he can think of nothing else than revenge against Messala.
Adam's Rib
Special Effects
Michael Ramsay only has time for gathering his fortune in wheat. His wife seeks comfort elsewhere and, to avoid a scandal, her daughter Matilda assumes her mother's guilt. Ramsay nearly goes broke but gets rich again; his wife returns.