Danforth's first professional job was in television as a sculptor and artist for clay-animation pioneer
Art Clokey, who had previously produced the beloved children's series
Gumby (1957-1969) during the 1950s.
1960s Danforth was subsequently hired by the special effects company
Project Unlimited and assisted a team of effects technicians on George Pal's celebrated 1960 feature-length
science-fiction film,
The Time Machine (1960), which won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for that year. Working with two other animators and a team of artists and technicians at
Project Unlimited, Danforth did the model-animation effects for the fantasy film
Jack the Giant Killer (1962), a film very similar to
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), with both films having a similar story, the same director,
Nathan Juran, and the same two lead actors,
Kerwin Mathews and
Torin Thatcher. In 1964, he was an un-credited
prop maker for
Star Trek first pilot,
"The Cage." While still at
Project Unlimited, Danforth was again hired by George Pal to do model animation for
7 Seven Faces of Dr. Lao (1964), In the mid 1960s, Danforth assisted fellow film maker
Dennis Muren (later head of
George Lucas's
Industrial Light and Magic (
ILM) special effects facility, and winner of several Oscars of his own) with the making of a 16 mm 71 min film titled
The Equinox... A Journey into the Supernatural. The film was later expanded with an additional 11 minutes by producer Jack H. Harris as the feature film
Equinox (1970), which was later released on VHS as
The Beast.) Danforth appeared as several 'extras' in the film and assisted in animating cells, painting mattes, and constructing sets and equipment, but did none of the film's stop-motion animation (which was done by Dave Allen and Dennis Muren). (Photo of Jim Danforth and matte painting from "Equinox" copyright 1965, 2006 Susan Turner)
1970s from When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth'' Wanting a sequel of its 1966 film
One Million Years B.C. (and unable to hire Harryhausen again, who was working on
The Valley of Gwangi at the time), England's
Hammer Films hired Danforth to animate the dinosaurs in
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970). Danforth refined the ability of his dinosaur models to realistically convey emotions, and developed the first use of motion-blurring for the animation of the models by using thin wires to move parts of them during the exposure of each frame. The film earned him a second Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects, but lost to Disney's
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1970). He shared the nomination with
Roger Dicken. During the early 1970s Danforth did pre-production special effects tests for film producer
Harry Saltzman on the unmade film
Cold War in a Country Garden (a.k.a.
The Micronauts). This proposed film that dealt with miniaturised spies was part of what film historian
John Brosnan calls the "shrunken man" cycle of films best exemplified by the film
Fantastic Voyage (1966). Danforth's work "involved compositing live action elements with glass painting during a camera tilt down." In the early 1970s, Danforth was hired to do a model animation sequence of a "beetle man" for the underground feature film
Flesh Gordon (1974). Not comfortable with the film being a semi-porn comedy, Danforth requested that his name not be included in the credits, but the film's producer,
Howard Ziehm, included his name anyway, as "Mij Htrofnad" (spelled backwards). Danforth then briefly joined with producer-actor (and, later, director)
Dan O'Bannon and first-time director
John Carpenter to provide some matte paintings for the independent counter-culture
science fiction cult-hit comedy
Dark Star (1975), which started as a short film and expanded by producer Jack H. Harris into a feature film, which was nominated for an effects Oscar (losing to Albert Whitlock's polished work on
The Hindenburg). In 1975, due to his dislike of the screenplay, Danforth rejected a personal carte-blanche offer from
Dino De Laurentiis to create a stop-motion sequence for the De Laurentiis remake of
King Kong, but accepted a contract with Universal to design creatures and animation for
its competing film project
The Legend of King Kong (which was later suspended, and then canceled after the release of the De Laurentiis film). When the De Laurentiis
King Kong was awarded an Oscar for best visual effects even though the effects nominating committee for the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had made no such recommendation, Danforth quit the committee and the Academy in protest. While Danforth was writing, designing effects, directing, and co-producing his film
Timegate (later shelved),
Star Wars forever revolutionized the film industry.
1980s In 1979, Danforth was hired, along with
Rick Baker, to design effects for
Edward Pressman's proposed production
Conan, which evolved into
Conan the Barbarian (1982), with neither Danforth or Baker were involved with. Although Danforth was not directly involved on the visual effects of the
John Milius project, he was hired to paint a matte shot during postproduction. He executed a matte painting for the penultimate shot of the film, showing Conan and the princess walking down toward a painting of a landscape valley. Danforth also provided a matte painting for the little-known film,
The Day Time Ended (1980). Danforth was subsequently hired to create the visual effects for the prehistoric spoof comedy
Caveman (1981) starring ex-Beatle
Ringo Starr. Danforth designed the dinosaurs and directed the live-action scenes in which the dinosaurs would appear, but the hands-on animation was done by David Allen,
Randy Cook and
Pete Kleinow. Danforth left the project "about two-thirds of the way." Then Danforth returned to England to assist on
Ray Harryhausen's last film
Clash of the Titans (1981) and animated portions of the Kraken sequence, the two-headed wolf sequences and most of the Pegasus sequence. In the mid-1980s, he was hired to do the "thought-box" matte shots for Danforth-fan
Mike Jittlov's first feature film
The Wizard of Speed and Time (1988 /released to theaters in 1989, and later on VHS and Laserdisc), based on Jittlov's 1980 short film of the same name. Jim and his wife appear briefly on camera as two
space shuttle astronauts in orbit during the film's final effects extravaganza sequence and also appear in a sequence spoofing the Directors Guild. During the late 1980s and early 1990, he was involved with the John Carpenter films
Body Bags (1993),
They Live (1988),
Prince of Darkness (1987), and
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992), providing matte paintings, optical effects, stop motion animation, and second-unit direction.
1990s Throughout the 1990s, he kept a lower profile, mainly providing matte paintings and supervising composite matte work on several films, a continuation of his film work since the 1960s. Comprehensive lists of these are at
the Internet Movie Database. A link to that site is below. Danforth presently lives and works in Los Angeles, creating fine-art and fantasy-genre paintings.
2000s In the early 2010s, he released a detailed autobiography of his personal life and film career, titled "Dinosaurs, Dragons, and Drama", on two CD-ROMs. These include many rare photos and detailed technical information (which he decided to not publish in printed book form for economic reasons). A third volume was released in 2022. ==Documentaries==