Nick Park
{{Short description|English filmmaker (born 1958)}}
{{Redirect|Nicholas Park|the field hockey player|Nicholas Park (field hockey)}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Nick Park
| image = Nick Park, BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2007.jpg
| caption = Park at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2007
| birth_name = Nicholas Wulstan Park
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1958|12|06|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Preston, Lancashire, England
| occupation = {{Flatlist|
- Director
- producer
- screenwriter
- animator
- voice actor
}}
| spouse = {{marriage|Mags Connolly|2016}}
| years_active = 1985–present
| works = {{Plainlist|
| awards = Four Academy Awards (1989, 1993, 1995, 2005)
| module = {{Listen| embed=yes |filename = Nick_park_bbc_radio4_desert_island_discs_19_Dec_2012.flac |title = Nick Park's voice |type = speech |description = from the BBC programme Desert Island Discs, 19 December 2010.{{Cite episode | title= Nick Park |series= Desert Island Discs |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wntyl |station= BBC Radio 4 |date= 19 December 2010 |access-date= 18 January 2014 }} }}
}}
Nicholas Wulstan Park {{postnom|country=GBR|CBE|RDI}}{{cite journal | author = Staff |date=September 2006 | title = Nick Park 1958– | journal = Biography Today | volume = 15 | issue = 3 | pages = 84–101 | issn = 1058-2347 |oclc=24242423 }}{{cite web|title=BBC Politics 1997: Courage rewarded in honours list|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/news/06/0614/honours.shtml|year=1997|publisher=BBC Television News|access-date=17 June 2012}} (born 6 December 1958){{Who's Who | title=PARK, Nicholas Wulstan | id = U30044 | volume = 2015 | edition = online Oxford University Press}} is an English filmmaker and animator who created Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and Early Man.{{IMDb name|0661910}} Park has been nominated for an Academy Award seven 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).{{cite web|url=http://www.aardman.com/about/|title=About Aardman|access-date=22 October 2022}}
He has also received seven BAFTA Awards, including the BAFTA for Best Short Animation for A Matter of Loaf and Death, which was believed to be the most-watched television programme in the United Kingdom in 2008.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/dec/26/wallace-and-gromit-lead-bbc-to-christmas-ratings-victory|title=Wallace and Gromit lead BBC to Christmas ratings victory|work=Guardian.co.uk|access-date=26 December 2008|location=London|first=James| last=Robinson|date=26 December 2008|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090106120125/http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/dec/26/wallace-and-gromit-lead-bbc-to-christmas-ratings-victory| archive-date= 6 January 2009 | url-status= live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bafta.org/awards/film/film-nominations-in-2009,657,BA.html|title=Film Winners in 2009|publisher=BAFTA|access-date=2009-02-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090211183707/http://bafta.org/awards/film/film-nominations-in-2009,657,BA.html|archive-date=11 February 2009|url-status=dead}} His 2000 film Chicken Run is the highest-grossing stop motion animated film.{{cite web|title=The Longer View: British animation|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/timelines/z9xvcwx|publisher=BBC|access-date=9 October 2015}}
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.{{cite web|title=Close-up: Sir Peter Blake's new Sgt Pepper collage|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-17582676|website=BBC News|publisher=BBC|access-date=7 June 2017|date=2 April 2012}}{{cite news|title=New faces on Sgt Pepper album cover for artist Peter Blake's 80th birthday|url= https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2012/apr/02/peter-blake-sgt-pepper-cover-revisited|agency=The Guardian|date=5 October 2016}}
Park was appointed a CBE by Queen Elizabeth II in the 1997 Birthday Honours for "services to the animated film industry".United Kingdom list: {{London Gazette|issue=54794|date=14 June 1997|supp=y|pages=9}}
Early life
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.{{cite web|title=Nick Park|url=http://www.biography.com/people/nick-park-40089|publisher=Biography.com|access-date=12 October 2015|archive-date=19 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019133747/http://www.biography.com/people/nick-park-40089|url-status=dead}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/98/Nick-Park.html|title=Nick Park Biography (1958-)|website=filmreference.com}} 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 submit to Blue Peter homemade items such as a bottle that squeezed out different coloured wools.
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.
Career
In 1985, Park joined the staff of Aardman Animations in Bristol, where he worked as an animator on commercial products (including the dance scene involving oven-ready chickens for the music video for Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer"). He also had a part in animating the Penny cartoons from the first season of Pee-wee's Playhouse, which featured Paul Reubens as his character Pee-wee Herman.
Along with all this, he had finally completed A Grand Day Out, and with that in post-production, he made Creature Comforts as his contribution to a series of shorts called "Lip Synch". Creature Comforts matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about their homes. The two films were nominated for a host of awards. A Grand Day Out beat Creature Comforts for the BAFTA Award, but it was Creature Comforts that won Park his first Oscar.
In 1990, Park worked alongside advertising agency GGK to develop a series of highly acclaimed television advertisements for the "Heat Electric" campaign. The Creature Comforts advertisements are now regarded as among the best advertisements ever shown on British television, as voted (independently) by viewers of the United Kingdom's main commercial channels ITV[http://www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.943 ITV’s Best Ever Adverts] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090305130459/http://thinkbox.tv/server/show/nav.943 |date=5 March 2009 }}. Retrieved 7 August 2010. and Channel 4.[http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/G/greatest/tv_ads/results.html 100 Greatest TV Ads]. Retrieved 7 August 2010.
Two more Wallace and Gromit shorts, The Wrong Trousers (1993) and A Close Shave (1995), followed, both winning Oscars. He then made his first feature-length film, Chicken Run (2000), co-directed with Aardman founder Peter Lord. He also supervised a new series of Creature Comforts films for British television in 2003.
File:Wallace, Gromit, and creator Nick Park.jpg]]
His second theatrical feature-length film and first Wallace and Gromit feature, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, was released on 5 October 2005, and won Best Animated Feature Oscar at the 78th Academy Awards, 6 March 2006.
On 10 October 2005, a fire gutted one of Aardman Animations' archive warehouses.{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4326624.stm |work=BBC News | title = Animation archive up in smoke | date = 10 October 2005 | access-date =3 October 2007 }} The fire resulted in the loss of some of Park's creations, including the models and sets used in the movie Chicken Run. Some of the original Wallace and Gromit models and sets, as well as the master prints of the finished films, were elsewhere and survived.
In 2007 and 2008, Park's work included a United States version of Creature Comforts, a weekly television series that was on CBS every Monday evening at 8 pm ET. In the series, Americans were interviewed about a range of subjects. The interviews were lip-synced to Aardman animal characters.
In September 2007, it was announced that Park had been commissioned to design a bronze statue of Wallace and Gromit, which will be placed in his home town of Preston.{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6980995.stm |work=BBC News | title = Wallace and Gromit statue planned | date = 6 September 2007 | access-date =3 October 2007 }} In October 2007, it was announced that the BBC had commissioned another Wallace and Gromit short film to be entitled Trouble at Mill{{cite news | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7024834.stm |work=BBC News | title = Wallace and Gromit return to TV | date = 3 October 2007 | access-date =3 October 2007 }} (retitled later to A Matter of Loaf and Death).
Park studied at Preston College,{{cite news | url = http://www.aoc.co.uk/en/aoc_beacon_gold_and_other_awards/aoc_beacon_gold_awards/aoc_gold_awards/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-2005.cfm | work = Association of Colleges | title = Hall of fame 2005 | date = 10 October 2005 | access-date = 6 November 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120407002526/http://www.aoc.co.uk/en/aoc_beacon_gold_and_other_awards/aoc_beacon_gold_awards/aoc_gold_awards/hall-of-fame/hall-of-fame-2005.cfm | archive-date = 7 April 2012}} which has since named its library for the art and design department after him: the [https://web.archive.org/web/20111106115224/http://www.preston.ac.uk/index.php/library-learning-centres Nick Park Library Learning Centre]. He is the recipient of a gold Blue Peter badge.
By the beginning of 2010, Park had won four Academy Awards, and had the distinction of having won an Academy Award every time he had been nominated (his only loss being when he was nominated twice in the same category). This streak ended in the 2010 Oscars when A Matter of Loaf and Death failed to win the best animated short Academy Award.
Park had his first acting role in February 2011, voicing himself in a cameo on The Simpsons episode "Angry Dad: The Movie". In the episode, the fictional Park's new Willis and Crumble short, Better Gnomes and Gardens, is a parody of Wallace and Gromit.
In the end of 2011, Park directed a music video for "Plain Song"—a song by Native and the Name, a Sheffield band led by Joe Rose, the son of an old university friend. The video was filmed at Birkdale School, Sheffield, and Park also selected the track as one of his Desert Island Discs when he went on the show in 2011, which led to suggestions that Park was using his fame to give a friend a leg up in his career. Park denied these claims, insisting it had become one of his favourite songs. The song and video can be found on YouTube.
In April 2013, Park was involved in the British stage adaptation of Hayao Miyazaki's animated film, Princess Mononoke.{{cite web|url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2013-04-19/nick-park-involvement-in-princess-mononoke-play-revealed|title=Nick Park's Involvement in Princess Mononoke Play Revealed|date=4 June 2023 }} He was the executive producer of Shaun the Sheep Movie and he also voiced himself in a cameo.
For 2018, he directed another Aardman Animations stop-motion film, titled Early Man, which tells a story of a caveman who unites his tribe against the Bronze Age while unintentionally inventing football.{{cite magazine|last1=Jaafar|first1=Ali|title=Studiocanal Doubles Down on Family Fare: Reteams With Nick Park And Gilles De Maistre For New Pics – Cannes|url=https://deadline.com/2015/05/studiocanal-nick-park-aardman-paddington-david-heyman-harry-potter-1201421472/|magazine=Deadline|access-date=7 May 2015|date=6 May 2015}}{{cite magazine|last1=Jaafar|first1=Ali|title=Nick Park's 'Early Man' A Prehistoric Blockbuster For StudioCanal; First Look Poster – Cannes|url=https://deadline.com/2015/05/nick-parks-early-man-studiocanal-paddington-shaun-the-sheep-1201429738/|magazine=Deadline|access-date=5 June 2015|date=19 May 2015}}
On 21 May 2019, Park announced that a new Wallace and Gromit project was currently in the works, with no projected release date.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/nick-park-new-wallace-gromit-project-works-1212493|title = New 'Wallace & Gromit' Project in Works, Says Nick Park|website = The Hollywood Reporter|date = 21 May 2019}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/05/new-wallace-gromit-project-nick-park.html|title=New Wallace & Gromit Project Announced by Creator Nick Park|date=21 May 2019}} In January 2022, Park announced that the project was currently in production as a television film for release in 2024 for the BBC and Netflix.{{cite news|title=Wallace & Gromit are returning to the BBC for a brand new adventure|url=https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a38828514/wallace-and-gromit-new-film-bbc/|last=West|first=Amy|work=Digital Spy|publisher=Hearst Magazines UK|date=20 January 2022|access-date=21 January 2022}} The film, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, was first shown on BBC One on Christmas Day 2024, and also featured the return of Wrong Trousers villain Feathers McGraw.
Personal life
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.{{cite news|author=Nigel Farndale|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3831833/Wallace-and-Gromit-one-man-and-his-dog.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3831833/Wallace-and-Gromit-one-man-and-his-dog.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Wallace and Gromit: one man and his dog|work=The Daily Telegraph |location=UK|date=18 December 2008|access-date=18 December 2008}}{{cbignore}}
Park married Mags Connolly at the Gibbon Bridge Hotel near Chipping on 16 September 2016.{{cite news|title=Wallace and Gromit creator ties the knot in Lancashire|url=http://www.lep.co.uk/news/wallace-and-gromit-creator-ties-the-knot-in-lancashire-1-8131630|access-date=17 September 2016|work=Lancashire Evening Post|date=17 September 2016}} 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.{{cite web|title='Wallace And Gromit' Creator Nick Park Goes Prehistoric For 'Early Man' |date=20 February 2018|url=https://www.wvxu.org/post/wallace-and-gromit-creator-nick-park-goes-prehistoric-early-man#stream/0|publisher=wvxu.org}}
Honours
File:Wallace and Gromit Preston 20211015.jpg.]]
In 1996, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bath.
On 25 October 1997, Park was awarded the Honorary Freedom of Preston, his home town (now city), which is the highest award a Council can bestow on an individual.{{Cite web |title=Honorary Freedom|url=https://www.preston.gov.uk/article/1367/Honorary-Freemen-Honorary-Freewomen|access-date=2023-11-18}}
In 2016, and following a vote by students on a number of nominated 'Preston Legends', the University of Central Lancashire named one of three new meeting rooms in the students' union after Park, who was born in the city where it is based. In response, Park sent the university a message to say how honoured he was by it.{{cite news |url=https://uclanthroughtheages.org/2016/11/04/new-meeting-rooms/|title=UCLan Through The Ages|publisher=University of Central Lancashire. 4 November 2016 | access-date=2 December 2019}}
Influences
Nick Park has stated that his main influences have been Ray Harryhausen, Oliver Postgate, Peter Firmin, Chuck Jones, Hayao Miyazaki, Yuri Norstein, Richard Williams, Terry Gilliam, and Bob Godfrey.{{cite web |last1=Wigley |first1=Samuel |title=Nick Park's seven animation heroes |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/interviews/nick-park-favourite-animators-influences-early-man |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=10 October 2021 |date=15 January 2018}} He was inspired by Gilliam's animation in Monty Python "to be a bit wacky and off the wall." He is a fan of Gerry Anderson, known for "Supermarionation" as seen in Thunderbirds.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gerryanderson.co.uk/famous-gerry-anderson-fans/|title=Famous Gerry Anderson Fans - Gerry Anderson News|date=2017-03-25|website=Gerry Anderson|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-08}}
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."{{cite book|title=The History of The Beano: The Story So Far|year=2008|publisher=DC Thomson; Waverly Books|editor-first=Christopher|editor-last=Riches|location=Dundee (DC Thomson); New Lanark (Waverly Books)|page=303}} 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.{{cite news|last1=Young|first1=Susan|title=Nick Park|url=https://www.tes.com/article.aspx?storycode=2376235|access-date=12 October 2015|work=Times Educational Supplement|date=12 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907212854/https://www.tes.com/news/tes-archive/tes-publication/nick-park |archive-date=7 September 2017}}
Filmography
= Feature films =
= Short films =
| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ !Year !Title !Director !Writer ! style="width:65px;" |Executive producer !Notes | ||||
| 1985
|Second Class Mail | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{yes|Color}} | {{no}}
| |
| 1986
|Babylon | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{yes}} | {{no}}
| |
| rowspan="3" |1989
|War Story | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{yes}} | {{no}}
|Documentary |
| Creature Comforts | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{no}}
| |
| Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{no}}
|Also cinematographer |
| 1993 | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{no}}
| |
| 1995 | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{yes|Character}} | {{no}}
| |
| 1997 | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{yes}}
| |
| 2008 | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{no}} | {{no}}
| |
| 2012 | {{yes}} | {{yes}} | {{no}} | {{no}}
| |
= Television and web series=
| class="wikitable sortable" | ||||||
| Year | Title
!Creator ! style="width:65px;" |Producer !Writer !Animator !style="width:65px;"|Voice actor ! Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{yes}} | {{no}}
|Animator for Penny cartoons | |
| 2002 | {{Partial|Developer}} | {{yes}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | rowspan="1" | |
| 2003–2006 | {{yes}} | {{yes|Executive}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | rowspan="1" | |
| 2007–present | {{Partial|Idea}} | {{yes|Executive}} | {{yes}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | rowspan="1" |Including 3D, Championsheeps & The Farmer's Llamas |
| 2009–2012 | {{no}} | {{yes|Executive}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | rowspan="1" | |
| 2010 | {{yes}} | {{yes|Executive}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | rowspan="1" | |
| 2011 | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{yes}} | rowspan="1" |Voice cameo in "Angry Dad: The Movie" |
| 2012 | {{no}} | {{no}} | {{yes}} | {{no}} | {{no}} |
= Music videos =
| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ !Year !Performer !Song !Animator | |
| 1986
|"Sledgehammer" | {{yes}} |
| 1996 | {{yes}} |
= Commercials =
- Burger King commercials
- The Electricity Association
= Video games =
- Wallace & Gromit Fun Pack (1996)
- Wallace & Gromit Fun Pack 2 (1999)
Awards and nominations
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
!Nominated for !Award !Category |
|---|
| rowspan="2"|1990
|rowspan="2"|BAFTA Awards |rowspan="2"|Best Short Animation |{{nom}} |
| A Grand Day Out
|{{won}} |
| rowspan="2"|1991
|Creature Comforts |rowspan="2"|Academy Awards |rowspan="2"|Best Animated Short Film |{{won}} |
| A Grand Day Out
|{{nom}} |
| rowspan="3"|1994
|rowspan="3"|The Wrong Trousers |Best Short Animation |{{won}} |
| Academy Awards
|Best Animated Short Film |{{won}} |
| Animafest
|Best Animated Short Film |{{won}} |
| rowspan="2"|1996
|rowspan="2"|A Close Shave |Best Short Animation |{{won}} |
| Academy Awards
|Best Animated Short Film |{{won}} |
| 2000
|rowspan="2"|BAFTA Awards |Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film |{{nom}} |
| 2004
|Creature Comforts |Comedy Programme or Series Award |{{nom}} |
| 2005
|rowspan="2"|Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit |{{won}} |
| 2006
|Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film |{{won}} |
| 2008
|Creature Comforts: "Don't Choke To Death, Please" |Outstanding Animated Program (for Programming Less Than One Hour) |{{nom}} |
| 2009
|rowspan="2"|A Matter of Loaf and Death |Best Short Animation |{{won}} |
| 2010
|Best Animated Short Film |{{nom}} |
| rowspan="4"|2025
|rowspan="4"|Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl |rowspan="3"|BAFTA Awards |{{won}} |
| Outstanding British Film
|{{nom}} |
| Children's and Family Film
|{{won}} |
| Academy Awards
|Best Animated Feature |{{nom}} |
References
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
External links
{{Commons}}
{{wikiquote}}
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20171113194050/http://www.animationartconservation.com/marking-his-mark-in-clay,-page-one.html "Making His Mark in Clay: An Interview with Nick Park"] Nick Park speaks about his influences, on how he uses drawing to tell a story and tells what it was like to bring Wallace and Gromit to the big screen
{{S-start}}
{{Succession box|before=David Lean|title=NFTS Honorary Fellowship|years=|after=Alan Parker}}
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{{Nick Park}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Nick Park
|list =
{{Academy Award Best Animated Feature}}
{{Annie Award for Character Design in a Feature Production}}
{{Annie Award for Directing in a Feature Production}}
{{Annie Award for Writing in a Feature Production}}
{{Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Animated Feature}}
{{Empire Award for Best Director}}
{{Winsor McCay Award 2000s}}
}}
{{Wallace and Gromit}}
{{Shaun the Sheep}}
{{Aardman Animations}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Nick}}
Category:Aardman Animations people
Category:Alumni of Sheffield Hallam University
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