February / 2001

REMEMBERING Dr. Wally Gentleman csc bsc
“Life on Earth is all an illusion for our instruction”

Dr. Wally Gentleman csc bsc (plus DGC, FRPS, FSMPTE, FBKSTS, AMPAS), director of photography, producer, director, screenwriter, and visual effects artist extraordinaire . . .

That was how we started our modest tribute to this pioneer wizard of special effects in the November, 2000, issue of the CSC News.

Wally was delighted, and he subsequently wrote us about a forthcoming interview by the Discovery Channel, for which, in his fashion, he was preparing methodically. Discovery’s special on 2001: A Space Odyssey — called 2001 and Beyond — aired Jan. 11, five days after Wally died at the age of 74. He appears in only a couple of short clips, but the special does confirm Wally’s vital part as special effects consultant on the Stanley Kubrick epic.

Kubrick sought out Wally “to coach him in special effects procedures” after the director saw the 1960 National Film Board short documentary Universe. At that time Wally was the NFB’s director of special effects, and the classic sci-fi film was but one of the many highlights of Wally’s long and diverse career in cinematography.

Starting as an effects camera assistant in England in 1943, his many feature credits include Great Expectations (1946), Black Narcissus (1947), The Red Shoes (1948), Oliver Twist (1948), Anastasia (1956), Drylanders (NFB-1963), and Lies My Father Told Me (Canada-1975). His long list of other achievements includes work on the groundbreaking, split-screen sensation called Labyrinth at the NFB’s pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, and among his numerous honours is a Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and an honorary doctorate of law from Concordia University in Montreal.

Wally was a master of illusion, and his own philosophy on life and death reflected that. He once wrote for the CSC News:

“A change of state that we know as death is but that, a change of state, from the five-sensory condition to the multi-sensory. In the latter condition we can more fully appreciate how life is occurring all over the universe in non-linear time.

“The past, present and future are all happening simultaneously. Life on Earth is all an illusion for our instruction. We are the primitive apes, touching the master computer for our elucidation, even now.”

In his last letter to us, Wally wrote that “the arrival of 2001 will undoubtedly re-invoke a flurry of interest in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. . . . For me, personally, 2001’s artificial mysteries comprise a thought-provoking, grand entertainment, of what can or might be realized in man’s efforts to master space.

“Man perpetually seeks to extend the reach of his limited five senses while in the physical condition of earth existence. 2001 correctly assesses our present inadequacy to confront the infinite reach of the macrocosm. We are in but a cocoon, protected through ignorance of what is, ultimately, to be experienced in the multi-dimensional condition.”

Wally is survived by his wife, Margaret, daughter Julia, sons Robin and Bob, and four grandchildren. Bob said his father “is off on another adventure now.”

Peter Benison csc, whose career was shaped by his association with Wally in the early 1970s, said he was pleased that “Wally made it to 2001.”
And beyond.

Don Angus

-End-

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