16 Facts About Ryan Larkin

1.

Ryan Larkin was a Canadian animator, artist, and sculptor who rose to fame with the psychedelic Oscar-nominated short Walking and the acclaimed Street Musique.

2.

Ryan Larkin was the subject of the Oscar-winning film Ryan.

3.

In 1958, at the age of fifteen, Ryan Larkin witnessed his brother die in a boating accident and, because he had never learned to swim, was unable to save him.

4.

Ryan Larkin attended the Art School of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts where he studied under Arthur Lismer before starting to work at the National Film Board of Canada in 1962.

5.

At the National Film Board of Canada, Ryan Larkin learned animation techniques from the ground-breaking and award-winning animator Norman McLaren.

6.

Ryan Larkin made two acclaimed short animated films, Syrinx and Cityscape, before going on to create Walking.

7.

Ryan Larkin went on to direct the award-winning short Street Musique, which premiered in 1972 and would be the last of his works, finished during his lifetime.

8.

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

9.

In 1975, the NFB commissioned Ryan Larkin to create a mural for the entrance foyer at its Montreal headquarters.

10.

Ryan Larkin, who was bi-sexual, delivered a piece featuring an adolescent boy with an erection, which the NFB removed from viewing.

11.

In later years, Ryan Larkin was plagued by a downward spiral of drug abuse, alcoholism and homelessness.

12.

Spare Change, which premiered at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema on October 9,2008, features three Chiwawa tunes for which Ryan Larkin created storyboards and animation, including Do It For Me from the 2005 album Bright.

13.

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

14.

In December 2006, Ryan Larkin created three five-second bumpers for MTV in Canada, a preview to Spare Change.

15.

Ryan Larkin said that he had given up some bad habits, including drinking, in order to better focus on his animating career.

16.

Ryan Larkin died in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, on February 14,2007, from lung cancer, which had spread to his brain.