Biography

O'Brien's first marriage to Hazel Collette was a troubled and uneasy affair. By 1930 it had been dissolved, but not before having produced two sons, William and Willis Jr. Hazel suffered from tuberculosis and was often heavily sedated. The disease then spread to William and blinded him. In the fall of 1933, during the production of the film Son of Kong (1933), Hazel shot and killed her two sons and then turned the gun on herself. She survived the incident, but died from cancer and tuberculosis soon afterward.

After O'Brien's death his protege, Ray Harryhausen, made regular visits to his second wife, Darlyne, until her death.

On the day O'Brien received back the first printed footage of the film King Kong (1933) in motion, he noticed that the fur covering the King Kong puppet had moved because it was disturbed by his fingers during filming. He had to show the footage to the film's producer that day and was worried his boss would notice this supposed mistake and fire him. However, upon showing the producer this footage, the man applauded his ability and fine attention to detail, exclaiming that he was amazed that he had even managed to make Kong's fur blow around in the wind.

O'Brien spent significant pre-production time on various film projects that were never made; they included "Creation" (1931), "The War Eagles" (1938), "Gwangi" (1941) and "Emilio and Guloso" a.k.a. "Valley of the Mist" (1950).

In 1941 O'Brien wrote "Gwangi", the story that later became the film "The Beast of Hollow Mountain" (1956), and took it to Edward Nassour, who knew O'Brien as a teenager. Nassour bought the story inexpensively and promised O'Brien the job of animator. However, when production on the film was about to begin, O'Brien found that his story had been altered and he had been shut out of the studio. Nassour had hired someone else to do the film's special effects behind his back.