CGTalk - Stop-Motion and CG animator "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow has died

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Papa Lazarou

01-10-2007, 05:00 AM

"Sneaky" Pete Kleinow 1934 - 2007

http://www.pkleinow.addr.com/skeletons.jpg

Here's Pete giving Harryhausen a run for his money with multiple animated skeletons on Army of Darkness. "Sneaky" Pete Kleinow started out as a stop-motion animator in the early sixties on TV shows like the Outer Limits and Davey and Goliath, and some George Pal movies. At the same time, somewhere along he also managed to have a successful music career , recording with a great many rock 'n' roll legends of the sixties and seventies.

http://www.pkleinow.addr.com/termiatorpete.jpg

In the eighties he co-owned and managed the Fantasy II Film effects studio, and was involved with most of the big stop-motion effects films, animating on The Empire Strikes back, both Terminator films, and Robocop II.

In the nineties he worked on the classic arcade game Primal Rage, before moving into CG animation at Sony Pictures Imageworks, but continued to do occaisional stop motion work.

He had a website:

http://sneakypetekleinow.com/

siouxfire

01-10-2007, 11:16 AM

It certainly seems like we've been losing more than our fair share of greats in recent years.

js33

01-10-2007, 11:56 PM

I only knew of him as a steel guitar player. I never knew he had anything to do with animation. Sad to see him pass though.

Tama

01-11-2007, 03:41 PM

That's sad to hear. I had no idea that he did more than create some really great pedal steel
music. He called me years back to see if I would build him a 12 string midi guitar setup that I had created for Dolly Parton's pedal steel player. I was a fan of his after hearing his playing on Joni Mitchell's Blue album.

Papa Lazarou

01-11-2007, 06:33 PM

I'm the other way. I'd come across his name many times over the years in relation to his stop motion work. I had no idea he was renowned for his steel pedal guitar playing. In one of the early issues of Cinefex he is mentioned as a "man of unwarrented anonimity". He animated the Terminator, and that incredible sequence with the robot in the warehouse in Robocop II. His work with Randy Cook on Caveman was a high watermark in stop-motion. At the time, you could probably count on one hand the number of people capable of producing that level of work.

I guess it says something for his talent, that a career of creating so much widely seen animation is overshadowed by his musical career.

Boone

01-11-2007, 08:13 PM

Pete was a force to be reckoned with in the Stop-Motion world. My thoughts go out to his friends and family.

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