Richard Ellis was born in New York City and grew up in Belle Harbor, Long Island; he is recognized as a much honored painter of marine natural history subjects His painting of whales have appeared in Audubon, National Wildlife, Australian Geographic, the Encyclopedia Britannica and numerous other national and international publications. His shark paintings have been featured in Sports Afield, Audubon, Sports Diver, Nautical Quarterly, Readers Digest and of course his own book, the Book of Sharks, currently in its 6th printing. In 1978 Richard Ellis completed a 35 foot long whale mural for the Denver Museum of Natural History and in September 1986 he completed a 100 foot long mural of Moby Dick for the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts. One hundred and six of his paintings were selected by the Smithsonian Institute to form a traveling exhibit of the marine mammals of the world; these paintings are now in the permanent collection of Whaleworld, a museum in Albany, Western Australia.
Though he is known by most as an artist he is known to most cryptozoologists through his work on the Giant Squids and Sea Monsters. As a child Richard Ellis had a long standing interest in mythological animals, drawing Unicorns, Griffins, winged horses and dragons, but became interested in cryptozoology after the 1976 discovery of the first Megamouth shark. Ellis had just published The Book of Sharks when this new and totally unexpected shark was discovered in Hawaiian waters; he eventually illustrated the creature for the publication in which it was first described. Ellis has intensively researched mystery whales, sharks, Sea Serpents, Merbeings, Giant Octopuses, and Giant Squids, a topic which so piqued his interest that he devoted two years worth of research to the legend of the Kraken, and its now scientifically recognized entity, the Giant Squid, Architeuthis.
Ellis has published many books and articles on crypzoloogical creatures since he first began researching these phenomena. He has appeared in numerous television specials and has even written screenplays on whales for PBS. Although sometimes taking the side of the skeptic, stating on one occasion that creatures like Bigfoot and Sea Monsters will never be proven to exist, he remains a well recognized figure in the field of Ocean Cryptozoology.
Quick Info: (where applicable)
Date of Birth: 1938
Birthplace: New York City, New York
Current Location: New York, United States of America
Books:
Singing Whales and Flying Squid: The Discovery of Marine Life (2006)
No Turning Back: The Life and Death of Animal Species (2005)
The Empty Ocean (2004)
Encyclopedia of the Sea (2000)
The Search for the Giant Squid: The Biology and Mythology of the Worlds Most Elusive Sea Creature (1999)
Deep Atlantic: Life, Death and Exploration in the Abyss (1998)
Imagining Atlantic (1998)
The Search for the Giant Squid (1998)
Monsters of the Sea (1994)
Physty (1993)
Great White Shark (1991)
Men and Whales (1991)
Dolphins and Porpoises (1982)
The Book of Whales (1980)
Schooling and/or Degrees:
University of Pennsylvania (graduate)
Organizations:
American Cetacean Society (special advisor)
Explorers Club
International Whaling Commission (U.S. Delegation 1980 1990)
International Society of Cryptozoology
Website: NA
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