FredO'Neill
- Animator
Dunedin businessman and artist, Fred O’Neill, whose hobby of making quirky animated films brought him international recognition, sent his Plasticine hero to Venus thirty years before Nick Park got Wallace and Gromit to the Moon. O’Neill’s films encouraged children not to take up smoking, brought Māori legends to the screen in a novel way, and entertained young viewers in the early years of New Zealand television.
Image credit: Stills Collection, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Courtesy of the Fred O'Neill collection.
Biography
Frederick Arthur O’Neill was born in 1919. Determined to make a living from art, he studied at an art school in Sydney after leaving Otago Boys' High. In Australia he worked at an engineering firm. After war service with the RNZAF in the Solomon Islands, he set up his own company, Dunedin Electroplaters, a successful business that provided his livelihood while keeping up his interest in art through his hobby of oil painting.
Screenography
Awards
1962 - British Amateur Cine World Ten Best Films of 1961 Competition
Judged among the Ten Best Films of the Year: Hatupatu and the Birdwoman
1961 - British Amateur Cine World Ten Best Films of 1960 Competition
Judged among the Ten Best Films of the Year: Flight to Venus
“...the actors exist for the film alone, ready to do one's bidding at any time, no matter what the weather may be.”
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