Biography

A. Arnold Gillespie

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A. Arnold Gillespie was born on October 14, 1899 in El Paso, Texas, USA. He is known for Ben-Hur (1959), The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Forbidden Planet (1956). He was married to Nell Hill, Ruth Elder and Dora Ingram. He died on May 3, 1978 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

His career at MGM was so long that he worked on the original Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925) and its remake Ben-Hur (1959) and the original Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and its remake Mutiny on the Bounty (1962).
He joined MGM in 1925, only a year after it was founded, as set designer for Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925), and worked for the studio steadily in different capacities (set designer, art director and especially, special effects expert) until 1962.
He became the head of MGM's special effects department in 1936.
Posed for a publicity photo with MGM mascot Leo the Lion. Leo suddenly snuggled up to him, creating one of the Publicity Department's favorite photos.
Educated at Columbia University and the Art Students League in New York. Worked as assistant art director at Paramount, 1922-24; art director at MGM, 1924-36. Head of MGM special effects department, 1936-65. Often collaborated closely with noted art director Cedric Gibbons, beginning with 'Ben-Hur' in 1924.

[on filming 'San Francisco'] The big-theater-nightclub set for this picture, in which Miss McDonald warbled her lovely lyric soprano, occupied all of Stage 12 at MGM. There had been some argument about the destructive movement of an earthquake. I supported the 'horizontal' theory, while others insisted that it was the vertical 'rolling-ups-and-downs' which caused the damage. An expert from California Polytechinc College in Pasadena was contacted, and I won. In fact, he commented that our 'schematic' for the set actually represented the very kind of an 'earthquake table' upon which, in small scale, Cal Tech experiments were conducted.
[on Cedric Gibbons]: Gibbons was so admired by the people on his staff, I don't think there was any resentment that he would get the acclaim for a picture. I used to insist that certain of the men that worked for me had credit. He could never understand that, you know.
[on his uncredited film work after retiring in 1965]: They did "Earthquake" at Universal, and they wanted me as consultant, and I said, "For a free lunch, I'll tell you everything I know about earthquakes." After five free lunches, I got a little embarrassed about it and bought everybody else a free lunch.

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