Nick Park
Nicholas Wulstan Park CBE RDI[2][3] (born 6 December 1958)[4] is an English filmmaker and animator who created Wallace and Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Early Man.[5] Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of six times and won four with Creature Comforts (1989), The Wrong Trousers (1993), A Close Shave (1995) and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).[6]
"Nicholas Park" redirects here. For the field hockey, see Nicholas Park (field hockey).
Nick Park
- Filmmaker
- animator
- voice actor
1985–present
Four Academy Awards (1989, 1993, 1995, 2005)
He has also received five BAFTA Awards, including the BAFTA for Best Short Animation for A Matter of Loaf and Death, which was also the most watched television programme in the United Kingdom in 2008.[7][8] His 2000 film Chicken Run is the highest-grossing stop motion animated film.[9]
In 1985, Park joined Aardman Animations based in Bristol, and for his work in animation he was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Peter Blake to appear in a 2012 version of Blake's most famous artwork—the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover—to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life.[10][11]
Park was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 Birthday Honours for services to the animated film industry.[12]
Early life[edit]
Nicholas Wulstan Park was born on 6 December 1958 in Preston, Lancashire, to seamstress Mary Cecilia (née Ashton; born 1930) and Roger Wulstan Park (1925–2004), an architectural photographer.[13] The middle child of five siblings, he grew up in Penwortham; the family later moved to Walmer Bridge. His sister Janet lives in Longton, Lancashire.[14] He attended Cuthbert Mayne High School (now Our Lady's Catholic High School).
Park grew up with a keen interest in drawing cartoons, and as a 13-year-old, he made films with the help of his mother, her home film camera and cotton bobbins. He also took after his father, an amateur inventor, and would send homemade items like a bottle that squeezed out different coloured wools to Blue Peter.[15]
He studied Communication Arts at Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University) and then went to the National Film and Television School, where he started making the first Wallace and Gromit film, A Grand Day Out.
Personal life[edit]
The Daily Telegraph remarked Park has taken on some attributes of Wallace, just "as dog owners come to look like their pets", overexpressing himself, possibly as a result of having to show animators how he wants his characters to behave.[15]
Park married Mags Connolly at the Gibbon Bridge Hotel near Chipping on 16 September 2016.[28] Although by his own admission, he was not especially interested in football growing up, he has always nominally supported his hometown's local team, Preston North End.[29]
Influences[edit]
Nick Park has stated that his main influences have been Ray Harryhausen, Oliver Postgate, Peter Firmin, Chuck Jones, Yuri Norstein, Richard Williams, Terry Gilliam, and Bob Godfrey.[32] He was inspired by Gilliam's animation in Monty Python "to be a bit wacky and off the wall."[32] He is a fan of Gerry Anderson, known for "Supermarionation" as seen in Thunderbirds.[33]
He is a fan of The Beano comic, and guest-edited the 70th-anniversary issue dated 2 August 2008. He stated, "My dream job was always to work on The Beano and it's such an honour for me to be Guest Editor."[34] He also contributed to Classics from the Comics at the same time, picking his favourite classic stories for the comic reprint magazine's new Classic Choice feature.
His film-making ideas were encouraged by his old English teacher; however, Park has denied that the character of Wallace was based on him.[35]