Classic Disney: Directors, Animators, Writers
List activity
203 views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
38 people
- Producer
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Flora Disney (née Call) and Elias Disney, a Canadian-born farmer and businessperson. He had Irish, German, and English ancestry. Walt moved with his parents to Kansas City at age seven, where he spent the majority of his childhood. At age 16, during World War I, he faked his age to join the American Red Cross. He soon returned home, where he won a scholarship to the Kansas City Art Institute. There, he met a fellow animator, Ub Iwerks. The two soon set up their own company. In the early 1920s, they made a series of animated shorts for the Newman theater chain, entitled "Newman's Laugh-O-Grams". Their company soon went bankrupt, however.
The two then went to Hollywood in 1923. They started work on a new series, about a live-action little girl who journeys to a world of animated characters. Entitled the "Alice Comedies", they were distributed by M.J. Winkler (Margaret). Walt was backed up financially only by Winkler and his older brother Roy O. Disney, who remained his business partner for the rest of his life. Hundreds of "Alice Comedies" were produced between 1923 and 1927, before they lost popularity.
Walt then started work on a series around a new animated character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. This series was successful, but in 1928, Walt discovered that M.J. Winkler and her husband, Charles Mintz, had stolen the rights to the character away from him. They had also stolen all his animators, except for Ub Iwerks. While taking the train home, Walt started doodling on a piece of paper. The result of these doodles was a mouse named Mickey. With only Walt and Ub to animate, and Walt's wife Lillian Disney (Lilly) and Roy's wife Edna Disney to ink in the animation cells, three Mickey Mouse cartoons were quickly produced. The first two didn't sell, so Walt added synchronized sound to the last one, Steamboat Willie (1928), and it was immediately picked up. With Walt as the voice of Mickey, it premiered to great success. Many more cartoons followed. Walt was now in the big time, but he didn't stop creating new ideas.
In 1929, he created the 'Silly Symphonies', a cartoon series that didn't have a continuous character. They were another success. One of them, Flowers and Trees (1932), was the first cartoon to be produced in color and the first cartoon to win an Oscar; another, Three Little Pigs (1933), was so popular it was often billed above the feature films it accompanied. The Silly Symphonies stopped coming out in 1939, but Mickey and friends, (including Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto, and plenty more), were still going strong and still very popular.
In 1934, Walt started work on another new idea: a cartoon that ran the length of a feature film. Everyone in Hollywood was calling it "Disney's Folly", but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was anything but, winning critical raves, the adoration of the public, and one big and seven little special Oscars for Walt. Now Walt listed animated features among his ever-growing list of accomplishments. While continuing to produce cartoon shorts, he also started producing more of the animated features. Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942) were all successes; not even a flop like Fantasia (1940) and a studio animators' strike in 1941 could stop Disney now.
In the mid 1940s, he began producing "packaged features", essentially a group of shorts put together to run feature length, but by 1950 he was back with animated features that stuck to one story, with Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), and Peter Pan (1953). In 1950, he also started producing live-action films, with Treasure Island (1950). These began taking on greater importance throughout the 50s and 60s, but Walt continued to produce animated features, including Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).
In 1955 he opened a theme park in southern California: Disneyland. It was a place where children and their parents could take rides, just explore, and meet the familiar animated characters, all in a clean, safe environment. It was another great success. Walt also became one of the first producers of films to venture into television, with his series The Magical World of Disney (1954) which he began in 1954 to promote his theme park. He also produced The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) and Zorro (1957). To top it all off, Walt came out with the lavish musical fantasy Mary Poppins (1964), which mixed live-action with animation. It is considered by many to be his magnum opus. Even after that, Walt continued to forge onward, with plans to build a new theme park and an experimental prototype city in Florida.
He did not live to see the culmination of those plans, however; in 1966, he developed lung cancer brought on by his lifelong chain-smoking. He died of a heart attack following cancer surgery on December 15, 1966 at age 65. But not even his death, it seemed, could stop him. Roy carried on plans to build the Florida theme park, and it premiered in 1971 under the name Walt Disney World. His company continues to flourish, still producing animated and live-action films and overseeing the still-growing empire started by one man: Walt Disney, who will never be forgotten.Producer, Director, Voice Actor- Animation Department
- Director
- Visual Effects
Ub Iwerks worked as a commercial artist in Kansas City in 1919 when he met Walt Disney who was in the same profession. When Disney decided to form an animation company, Ub Iwerks was the first employee he had due to his skill at fast drawing as well as being a personal friend.
When Charles Mintz raided Disney's animation studio and stole the rights to their character Oswald the Rabbit, Ub was the only associate to remain with Disney. He served as the principal animator for the first Mickey Mouse shorts and Silly Symphonies. Iwerks was so prominent in the production of these shorts that it was speculated that Ub was the dominant force behind the success of Disney Productions. The combination of Iwerks' rising ambitions, occasional differences with Walt and a tempting deal with Pat Powers to finance his own studio prompted him to break away in 1930. His studio was never a tenth of the artistic or financial success that Disney was. He simply did not have the creative talents of his partner and his characters, Flip the Frog and Willy Whopper were rather dull failures. His studio was closed in 1936 when Powers withdrew his support. He worked for Columbia starting in 1938 and worked for two years until he decided to return to Disney. The two men never commented on their renewed relationship but the reunion was mutually beneficial. Iwerks was able to abandon animation and concentrate on technical development which helped create many of the special effects that the Disney company excelled in for decades, especially concerning the live action animation combination sequences in Song of the South (1946) and Mary Poppins (1964).Animator, Director, Special Effects Technician- Animation Department
- Director
- Art Department
Leslie James "Les" Clark was an American animator from Ogden, Utah. He served as one of Disney's Nine Old Men, a group of senior animators who supervised the Walt Disney Animation Studios from c. 1945 to 1977. Clark was skilled in timing his animation to musical scores, and in conveying emotion in the scenes which he animated. He went into retirement in the mid-1970s, and died before the end of the decade.
In 1927, Clark was hired in a temporary position at the Disney animation studio. He was initially working as a camera operator, and was then transferred to the ink and paint department. He received training from Ub Iwerks, who was the senior animator of the studio for most of the 1920s. Clark served as an inbetweener in "Steamboat Willie" (1928), the official debut for Mickey Mouse (the new protagonist for the studio's animated short films). Clark was soon after promoted to the position of a regular animator, and was tasked with working on "The Skeleton Dance" (1929). It was the first film in the "Silly Symphony" series.
Iwerks left the Disney studio in January, 1930, in order to establish his own Iwerks Studio (1930-1936). Clark became the senior animator of the "Mickey Mouse" film series. He worked under the various directors of the series, such as Burt Gillett, Wilfred Jackson, and David Hand. Clark regularly attended art classes in order to improve his art style.
In 1934, the Disney studio started working on the animated feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937). It was the first American feature film, and the most ambitious project for the studio. Clark was tasked with animating the Seven Dwarfs. His most important scene in the film depicted Snow White dancing with each of the Dwarfs.
Clark's next major assignment was the anthology film "Fantasia" (1940). He was one of the key animators for two segments of the film: "The Nutcracker Suite" and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". The "Sorcerer's Apprentice" was an adaptation of the eponymous 1797 German poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which was in turn an adaptation of the Roman story "Philopseudes" ("Lover of Lies") by Lucian. Clark and his fellow animators worked with a redesigned version of Mickey Mouse, provided by Fred Moore. The new version of the character had pupils in his eyes, and had a greater range of expressions.
In the mid-1940s, Clark was promoted to the position of a directing animator in Disney's feature films. He served in this role for "Song of the South" (1946), "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947), "Melody Time" (1948), "Cinderella" (1950), "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), "Peter Pan" (1953), and "Lady and the Tramp" (1955). Clark also served as a sequence director for "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), in his last major work in a feature film.
Clark served as the director of the animated short "Paul Bunyan" (1958), which was based on American folklore about a giant lumberjack. The short was nominated for an "Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film", but lost to "Knighty Knight Bugs" by Warner Bros. Cartoons. During the 1960s, Clark primarily worked on Disney's infrequently released animated short films. He directed the educational short films "Freewayphobia or The Art of Driving the Super Highway" (1965) and "Goofy's Freeway Troubles" (1965), which both featured Goofy as their protagonist. He also directed the educational short film "Donald's Fire Survival Plan" (1966), which focused on fire safety precautions.
Clark retired in the mid-1970s, possibly due to health reasons. His "temporary" assignment for the Disney studio had lasted for over 35 years, and he was the studio's longest serving employee at the time of his retirement. In September 1979, Clark died due to cancer. He was 71-years-old at the time of his death. He was the second of the Nine Old Men to die, following John Lounsbery. In 1989, Clark was posthumously inducted into the hall of fame "Disney Legends" in 1989.Animator, Director- Animation Department
- Director
- Producer
Wolfgang Reitherman was a German-born American animator who was one of Disney's Nine Old Men.
He began working for Disney in 1933, along with future Disney legends Ward Kimball and Milt Kahl. The three worked together on a number of classic Disney shorts.
Reitherman directed several Disney animated feature films including: One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963), The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats (1970), Robin Hood (1973), The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh (1977), and The Rescuers (1977).
He died in a car accident in 1985 at the age of 75. In 1989 Reitherman was posthumously named a Disney Legend, a hall of fame program that recognizes individuals who have made an extraordinary and integral contribution to The Walt Disney Company.Director, Animator, Producer- Animation Department
- Director
- Additional Crew
Eric Cleon Larson was born on September 3, 1905 in Cleveland, Utah, to Peter and Nora Larson. In 1915 his family moved to Salt Lake City, where he became interested in journalism and also secretly took drawing lessons. In 1925, he entered the University of Utah, later moving to Los Angeles to look for a job in journalism and writing, unfortunately unsuccessfully. He then decided to rekindle his ambition to become an artist, and was offered a job at Walt Disney Productions in 1933, as an `in-betweener'. Later the same year, he married Gertrude Jannes (although sadly, the couple remained childless).
Animator Hamilton Luske recognized Larson's talent and promoted him to assistant animator; Luske, who had joined the studio two years previously, later became his mentor. Further promotion followed, with Eric as animator on Walt Disney's first feature length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937); along with future veteran animators Milt Kahl and James Algar, he animated the forest animals that followed Snow White throughout. In 1940, he was promoted to animation director for Pinocchio (1940), and in that film he created the kitten, Figaro, who became one of his favorite characters. In Fantasia (1940), he created the centaurs and the horses in the "Pastoral Symphony" segment of the musical feature.
By 1942, he had become a supervising animator for Bambi (1942) along with fellow workers Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and Milt Kahl, with whom he had worked on Snow White. In Bambi, he created Friend Owl, and subsequently worked on birds for the next two assignments, creating the mad Aracuan Bird in The Three Caballeros (1944), and Sasha the Bird in Make Mine Music (1946). Larson also worked on Fun and Fancy Free, Song of the South, Melody Time, and _So Dear to My Heart (1949)_. He later became part of the Animation Board, and Walt Disney appointed him as one of his Nine Old Men, who consisted of Les Clark, Woolie Reitherman, Eric Larson, Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery and Marc Davis; all considered to be Walt's most trusted associates.
On Cinderella (1950), Eric assisted fellow directing animator Marc Davis animate Cinderella herself. He was directing animator on Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953), animating the caterpillar in the former and the flight to Neverland in the latter, and also working on Peg, the canine in Lady and the Tramp (1955). For Sleeping Beauty (1959), Larson was promoted to Sequence Director with Les Clark and Woolie Reitherman, and for the classic One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), he became a Directing Animator, helping to create some of the puppies. Sadly, for the next three features, The Sword in the Stone (1963), Mary Poppins (1964) and _Jungle Book, The (1967)_, he was demoted to Character Animator; The Jungle Book (1967), was the final film made by Walt, who died later that same year.
After Walt's death, it became evident that the veteran animators were either dying or retiring swiftly, and Eric was placed in charge of finding and training new talent in addition to his character animating work. He trained many successful members of today's animation world, including Andreas Deja, Glen Keane, John Pomeroy, Gary Goldman, Betsy Baytos, and others. He worked as an animator on _Aristocats, The (1970)_ and on Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), moving on to animate Robin Hood (1973) and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). In 1977, for the feature The Rescuers, Eric assisted veteran story men Mel Shaw and Burny Mattinson with the opening sequence titles.
By 1981, almost all of the Nine Old Men were gone; Les Clark and John Lounsbery were dead, and Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas and Woolie Reitherman had retired. Eric was the only one remaining, although no longer a working animator. A new generation of artists came into being for The Fox and the Hound (1981), although Larson remained as an animation consultant for The Black Cauldron (1985), and The Great Mouse Detective (1986). Eric retired in September 1986; sadly his wife, Gertrude, had died of cancer in 1975. He retired to his home in La Canada Flintridge, near Glendale in Los Angeles, and died October 25, 1988. In 1989 he was posthumously awarded the Disney Recognition of Honor by Roy Disney, Walt's nephew.Animator- Animation Department
- Actor
- Art Department
Milt Kahl was a veteran animator from San Francisco. He became one of "Disney's Nine Old Men", a board of supervising animators who headed the production staff of the Walt Disney Animation Studios from c. 1945 to 1977.
In 1909, Kahl was born in San Francisco. His parents were the saloon bartender Erwin Kahl and his wife Grace. Kahl was one of several young animators hired by the Disney studio in the mid-1930s. He worked on the animated feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), animating various forest animals. He is also thought to have worked in scenes involving the film's unnamed prince.
Kahl was noticed by the studio's executives while working in the subsequent film "Pinocchio" (1940). Kahl insisted that the eponymous sentient puppet should primarily look as a "cute little boy", and not as a real puppet. Kahl was allowed to design the film's version of Pinocchio, as a boy with a Tyrolean hat and Mickey Mouse-type gloves on his hands. Walt Disney embraced Kahl's vision and urged the writers to evolve Pinocchio into a more innocent figure that would match Kahl's design. In the film itself, Kahl animated several scenes involving Pinocchio himself, Jiminy Cricket, and Gepetto.
Kahl served as a supervising animator in "Bambi" (1942), working on scenes involving Bambi and Thumper. In "Saludos Amigos", Kahl animated a sequence which depicted Donald Duck riding a llama. Kahl was one of the animators in two segments of "Make Mine Music" (1946): "The Martins and the Coys" and "All the Cats Join In". Kahl directed the Tar Baby sequence in "Song of the South" (1946), a film adaptation of the short story "Tar-Baby" (1881) which featured a doll made of tar and turpentine. Kahl worked on the Bongo segment of the anthology film "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947). He was responsible for animating both the female lead Lulubelle and the villain Lumpjaw.
Kahl was one of the directing animators in the anthology film "Melody Time" (1948). He was responsible for the scenes depicting Johnny Appleseed, Johnny's guardian angel, Pecos Bill, Widowmaker (Pecos' horse), and Slue Foot Sue (Pecos' love interest). Kahl worked as a directing animator in both segments of the anthology film "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" (1949). He worked on animating characters from both "The Wind in the Willows" (1908) by Kenneth Grahame and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820) by Washington Irving.
In "Cinderella" (1950), Kahl animated scenes involving the Fairy Godmother, the Prince Charming, the King, and the Grand Duke. In "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), Kahl was responsible for scenes involving Alice herself, the White Rabbit, and the Dodo. In "Peter Pan" (1953), Kahl animated scenes involving Peter Pan, Wendy Darling, John Darling, Michael Darling, Mr. Darling, Mrs. Darling, and their dog Nana. In "Lady and the Trump" (1955), Kahl worked on scenes involving Lady, the Tramp, and the supporting character Trusty.
In "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), Kahl animated the co-protagonist Prince Philip, and the supporting characters King Hubert and King Stefan. In "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961), Kahl worked on scenes involving the main characters Roger, Anita, Pongo, and Perdita. Kahl worked as both a directing animator and a character designer for the Arthurian film "The Sword in the Stone" (1963). Among several other characters, in this film, Kahl worked on scenes involving the witch Madame Mim.
In "The Jungle Book" (1967), Kahl worked on scenes involving most of the film's main characters, including Mowgli, Baloo, Bagheera, Shere Khan, King Louie, and, Kaa. In "The Aristocats" (1970), Kahl worked on scenes involving Thomas O'Malley, Duchess, Madame Bonfamille, and Edgar. In "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971), Kahl animated King Leonidas. In "Robin Hood" *(1973), Kahl worked on nearly every major character in the cast, including Robin Hood himself and Maid Marian.
In "The Rescuers" (1977), Kahl worked primarily on scenes involving the villain Madame Medusa and the orphan girl Penny. It was the last time Kahl was credited as a directing animator. Kahl went into semi-retirement in the late 1970s, though he is thought to have done uncredited work as a character designer in the early 1980s. Kahl was brought out of retirement during the production phase of "The Black Cauldron" (1985). The Disney studio wanted him to provide new character designs for Taran, Eilonwy, and Fflewddur Fflam.
In April 1987, Kahl died due to pneumonia. He was 78-years-old at the time of his death, and he had survived several of the other members of the Nine Old Men. In 2009, the centenary of his birth was celebrated with a tribute entitled "Milt Kahl: The Animation Michelangelo".Animator- Animation Department
- Director
- Writer
Ward Kimball joined Disney Studios in 1934 as an animator. He eventually became involved in all aspects of animation production, most notably as the designer of Jiminy Cricket for the film "Pinocchio." He was also responsible for the redesign of Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney recognized Kimball's achievements by making him one of the "Nine Old Men", Disney's semi-official group of advisors. Kimball retired from Disney in 1972, but still maintained ties with the studio. He joined other leading Disney animators in 1978 for a whistle-stop tour to promote Mickey Mouse's 50th birthday. In addition to animation, Kimball was both an avid musician and train enthusiast. In 1948 he formed the Firehouse Five Plus Two, a Dixieland jazz band composed of fellow Disney employees. He also maintained a full-sized train and tracks at his home in California, and was a past president of the Train Collectors Association. Not only did his love of trains get him the job of designing the World of Motion display at EPCOT, it also got another train collector started--Walt Disney himself. Kimball received many honors during his lifetime, and in 1989 was named a Disney Legend.Animator, Director- Animation Department
- Writer
- Actor
Frank Thomas was born on 5 September 1912 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Iron Giant (1999), The Incredibles (2004) and The Aristocats (1970). He was married to Jeanette A. Thomas. He died on 8 September 2004 in La Cañada Flintridge, California, USA.Animator- Animation Department
- Actor
- Art Department
Oliver Martin "Ollie" Johnston was an American animator from Palo Alto, California. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, a group of senior animators which supervised production at the Walt Disney Animation Studios from c. 1945 to 1977. By the time of his death in 2008, Johnston was the last surviving member of the group. Johnston co-wrote the reference book "Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life" (1981), where he explained the twelve basic principles of animation. He helped to both preserve and popularize the knowledge of the techniques that were developed at the Disney studio over several decades.
In 1912, Johnston was born in Palo Alto, California. His father was Oliver Johnston, a professor at Stanford University. The younger Johnston attended Palo Alto High School. He received his college education at Stanford University, where he worked on the campus humor magazine "Stanford Chaparral". He befriended a co-worker at the magazine, the aspiring animator Frank Thomas (1912-2004). The two remained close friends until Thomas' death in the early 2000s.
In his senior year at college, Johnston transferred to the Chouinard Art Institute (1921-1970), a professional art school located in Los Angeles. Johnston was hired by the Walt Disney Animation Studios c. 1934. He served as an uncredited inbetweener in several Mickey Mouse short films, and as an assistant animator in the animated feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937).
After being promoted to a regular animator, Johnston's first major assignment was to animate the sentient puppet Pinocchio in the feature film "Pinocchio" (1940). Johnston animated the Centaurettes (female centaurs) and the Cupids in the "Pastoral Symphony" segment of "Fantasia" (1940).Johnston animated the key scene of the death of Bambi's mother in "Bambi" (1942). He animated "The Flying Gauchito" segment of "The Three Caballeros" (1944). He animated both the "Peter and the Wolf" and the "Casey at the Bat" segments of "Make Mine Music" (1946). Johnston animated Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, and Br'er Bear in "Song of the South" (1946). He animated Jiminy Cricket in "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947). He animated both Johnny Appleseed and his guardian angel in "Melody Time" (1948).
Johnston served as a directing animator in "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" (1949). He also animated most of the film's major characters, including J.Thaddeus Toad, Ichabod Crane, Katrina Von Tassel, and Brom Bones. Johnston again served as a directing animator in "Cinderella" (1950). He was also the supervising animator for Cinderella's bratty stepsisters, Drizella Tremaine and Anastasia Tremaine. Johnston was tasked with animating Alice and the King of Hearts in "Alice in Wonderland" (1951). He animated the inept pirate Mr. Smee in "Peter Pan" (1953), with the character depicted as Captain Hook's first mate and personal assistant. Johnston animated the sentient dogs Lady, Jock and Trusty in "Lady and the Tramp". Johnston animated the heroic fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959).
Jonston served as the directing animator for the sentient dog Perdita "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961). He animated the wizard Merlin, his student Wart/Arthur, and the wizard's familiar Archimedes in "The Sword in the Stone" (1963). Johnston animated the penguins in "Mary Poppins" (1964). He served as the directing animator for Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo, and Mowgli's unnamed love interest in "The Jungle Book" (1967).
Johnston served as the directing animator for most of the major characters in "The Aristocats" (1970), including Duchess, Thomas O' Malley, and the kittens Marie, Berlioz, and Toulouse. He also served as a directing animating for most of the major characters in "Robin Hood" (1973), including Prince John, Sir Hiss, Maid Marian, and Lady Cluck. Johnston animated Winnie the Pooh and Piglet in "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1977). Johnston served as the directing animator for the co-protagonists Bernard and Bianca, and for the orphan girl Penny in "The Rescuers" (1977).
Johnston served as the supervising animator for the younger versions of the co-protagonists Tod and Copper in "The Fox and the Hound" (1981). This was his last involvement in the production of a Disney feature film. Following his retirement from Disney, Johnston started writing non-fiction about animation and its techniques. He served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute during the 1980s and the 1990s. In November 2005, Johnston received the prestigious National Medal of Arts by the then President of the United States George Walker Bush (1946-, term 2001-2009).
In April 2008, Johnston died of natural causes. He was 95-years-old at the time of his death, and he had survived many of his colleagues at Disney. Theodore Thomas featured biographical information on Johnston in the documentary films "Frank and Ollie"(1995) and "Growing up with Nine Old Men" (2012). Johnston is still fondly recalled by fans of traditional animation.Animator- Animation Department
- Writer
- Actor
Marc Davis was an American animator from Bakersfield, California. He was a member of Disney's Nine Old Men, a group of senior animators who supervised the Walt Disney Animation Studios from c. 1945 to 1977. Davis was nicknamed as "Disney's Ladies' Man", because he was often asked to design and/or animate the primary female characters in Disney's feature films. His most significant characters were Snow White in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), Bambi, Faline, and Flower in "Bambi" (1942), Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, and Brer Bear in "Song of the South" (1946), Bongo in "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947), Mr. Toad and the villainous weasels in "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" (1949), Cinderella in "Cinderella" (1950), Alice in "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), Tinker Bell and Mrs. Darling in "Peter Pan" (1953), Aurora, Maleficent, and Diablo the Raven in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), and Cruella De Vil and Anita in "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961).
Davis took up drawing as a hobby during his childhood. He noted that his drawings increased his popularity with other kids, and that even the bullies stopped bothering him. Deciding to become a professional artist, Davis received training at the Kansas City Art Institute, the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, and the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. He habitually sketched zoo animals for practice, and studied animal anatomy to improve the accuracy of his depictions.
In 1935, Davis was one of several young animators hired by Disney during the production phase of the studio's first animated feature film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937). He soon demonstrated a talent for developing "three-dimensional characters and storytelling", which set him apart from other animators. Which is why he was assigned to draw "difficult-to-draw" human characters, rather than caricatures. He always aimed "to put personality into the characters", in order to make them appealing to the film's audience. He typically used reference images for his characters, and at times emulated the gestures and expressions of the characters' voice actors. One of his most challenging assignments was animating the silent character of Tinker Bell. He had to express the character's sass and personality through pantomime and facial expression alone.
In 1956, Davis married the costume designer Alice Estes (1929-2022). They had previously been working together in developing suitable clothing for the character of Aurora, and their professional relationship preceded their romantic relationship. Soon after their wedding, Disney introduced her to the studio head Walt Disney. Walt eventually hired Alice to design costumes for Disney's live-action productions.
In the early 1960s, Davis left Disney's animation studio. He transferred to WED Enterprises (later renamed to Walt Disney Imagineering), the subsidiary company responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attractions. Davis helped in the design and creation of several attractions, including "The Jungle Cruise" (1955), "Mine Train Through Nature's Wonderland" (1960), "The Enchanted Tiki Room" (1963), "Ford's Magic Skyway" (1964), "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" (1964), "The Carousel of Progress" (1964), "It's a Small World" (1964), "Pirates of the Caribbean" (1967), "The Haunted Mansion" (1969), "The Country Bear Jamboree" (1971), and "America Sings" (1974).
Davis worked in the early 1970s in developing an attraction called "Western River Expedition", which would serve as a historical recreation of the Western expansion of the United States. This attraction was never built, but elements of Davis' designs were later used in developing the attractions called "Tom Sawyer Island", "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad", "Splash Mountain", "Thunder Mesa", "Phantom Manor", and "Expedition Everest".
Davis retired in 1978, at the age of 65. In 1982, Davis won a Winsor McCay Award for his contributions to animation. In 1985, Davis won the Golden Award of the organization Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists. In 1989, he was inducted to the hall of fame Disney Legends. In 1993, Davis received an award by the Disneyana Fan Club. Davis died in January 2000, at the age of 86. Shortly following his death, the Marc Fraser Davis Scholarship Fund was formally established at the California Institute of the Arts.
Davis' career and artwork were the subject of the biographical book "Marc Davis: Walt Disney's Renaissance Man" (2014) by Disney Editions. The book was followed by the sequel "Marc Davis in His Own Words: Imagineering the Disney Parks" (2020), which focused on his theme park designs. Though long gone, Davis remains popular among fans of traditional animation.Animator- Animation Department
- Director
- Art Department
John Lounsbery was an American animator and animation director from Cincinnati, Ohio. He eventually became one of "Disney's Nine Old Men", a group of senior animators who were in charge of the Walt Disney Animation Studios from c. 1945 to 1977. Lounsbery died in 1976, with his death leading to the dissolution of the group. He was the first of the Nine to die, and also had the shortest lifespan among them.
Lounsbery was born in Ohio, but spend much of his childhood in Colorado. He attended the East Denver High School, then received art lessons at the Art Institute of Denver. He continued his art education in Los Angeles, taking lessons at the ArtCenter College of Design. The College was a private art school established in 1930, and initially only trained visual artists and designers. The curriculum later expanded to include lessons in photography and technical illustrations.
One of Lounsbery's college instructors arranged a job interview for him, as a prospective animator for the Disney studios. Lounsbery was hired in early July 1935. He was put to work as an uncredited assistant animator for the animated feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937).
Lounsbery quickly became one of Disney's "star animators", because he was considered unusually skilled as a draftsman. His first major assignment was animating two of the villains in "Pinocchio" (1940), the conman duo of J. Worthington Foulfellow and Gideon. He served as one of the main animators in a ballet-themed segment of "Fantasia" (1940), the "Dance of the Hours". He was tasked with animating one of the main dancers of the segment, Ben Ali Gator.
Lounsbery made his debut as a directing animator in the feature film "Song of the South" (1946), an adaptation of the "Uncle Remus" stories of Joel Chandler Harris. His subsequent credits as a directing animator included the feature films "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947)., "Melody Time" (1948), "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" (1949), "Cinderella"" (1950), "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), "Peter Pan" (1953), "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), "Sleeping Beauty" (1959), "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961), "The Sword in the Stone" (1963), "The Jungle Book" (1967), "The Aristocats" (1970), and "Robin Hood" (1973). He was often tasked with animating key supporting characters of these films. His most memorable work as an animator included animating the allied kings Huber and Stefan in "Sleeping Beauty", the villainous tiger Shere Khah in "The Jungle Book", and the heroic fox Robin Hood in "Robin Hood".
Lounsbery co-directed the anthology feature film "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1977), which was released a year following his death. It was his debut as a director. In the film, he was also the main animator for the depressed donkey Eeyore. At the time of his death in 1976, Lounsbery was working in the upcoming feature film "The Rescuers" (1977). He was one of the three credited directors of the film, though he did live not long enough to complete it.
On February 13, 1976, Lounsbery suffered a sudden heart attack while working. He died shortly after, at the age of 64. He died about a month before his 65th birthday. At the time, most of the other "Nine Old Men" were considering retirement and a new generation of animators were in training. Lounsbery was buried at the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Lounsbery was posthumously awarded with a "Winsor McCay Award" in 1986. and was named a "Disney Legend" in 1989. His work is still highly regarded by fans of classic animation, though he is possibly the least famous among "Disney's Nine Old Men". Relatively little is known about Lounsbery's personal life.Animator, Director- Director
- Animation Department
- Music Department
Wilfred Jackson was born on 24 January 1906 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a director, known for Cinderella (1950), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He died on 7 August 1988 in Balboa Island, Newport Beach, California, USA.Director, Animator, Arranger- Director
- Animation Department
- Producer
Hamilton Luske was an American animator and film director from Chicago, who spend most of his career at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. He served as the supervising director of several of Disney's films. He was also the supervising animator for the character of Snow White in the feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), tasked with making the character more believably human and realistic than any previous Disney character.
Luske graduated from the University of California- Berkley, where he majored in business. He started his working life as a newspaper cartoonist in Oakland. Luske was hired by Walt Disney Animation in 1931, and received most of his training as an animator there. His early work included several of the studio's short films, both in the anthology series "Silly Symphonies" (1929-1939) and the long-running character-driven series "Mickey Mouse" (1929-1953). His first major assignment was serving as the supervising animator of Snow White in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937). He was rewarded for his success by becoming a supervising director in subsequent films.
Luske served as a supervising director in the feature film "Pinocchio" (1940), which he co-directed with Ben Sharpsteen. He co-directed "The Pastoral Symphony" segment of the anthology film "Fantasia" (1940), which focused on characters from Greco-Roman mythology. Luske served as the supervising director of the animated segments of the feature film "The Reluctant Dragon" (1941), while the live-action segments were directed by Alfred Werker.
Luske subsequently co-directed "Saludos Amigos" (1942), "Make Mine Music" (1946), "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947), "Melody Time" (1948), "So Dear to My Heart" (1948), "Cinderella" (1950), "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), "Peter Pan" (1953), "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), and "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961). He directed an animated sequence in the live-action musical film "Mary Poppins" (1964), and won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his efforts.
Luske's last significant assignment was directing the animated short film "Scrooge McDuck and Money" (1967), marking the first animated appearance of Scrooge. Scrooge McDuck had been a recurring character in Disney comics since 1947, but had received no adaptations in film until Luske's short film.
Luske died in 1968, in Bel Air, California, at the age of 64. At the time, Disney's other veteran animators had started leaving or retiring, marking an end of an era for the studio. Luske was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 1999. Luske's son Tommy Luske worked as a voice actor in the 1950s.Director, Animator- Animation Department
- Director
- Production Manager
Norman Ferguson was born on 2 September 1902 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a director and production manager, known for Dumbo (1941), Pinocchio (1940) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). He was married to Gladys F.. He died on 4 November 1957 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Animator, Director- Animation Department
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Fred Moore was born on 7 September 1911 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Dumbo (1941) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He died on 25 November 1952 in Burbank, California, USA.Animator- Animation Department
- Director
- Writer
Art Babbitt (born Arthur Harold Babitsky) was an American animator and animation director from Omaha, Nebraska. He worked in several animation studios over his long career, but is mostly remembered for his early work for the Walt Disney Animation Studios. During the 1930s, Babbitt redesigned and developed the character of Goofy. In his view, Goofy was a composite character: "a composite of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, a half-wit, a shiftless, good-natured hick". Babbitt was credited as the main animator for the Evil Queen in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), and for Geppetto in "Pinocchio" (1940).
In 1907, Babbitt was born to a Jewish family in Little Bohemia, Omaha. It was a neighborhood of Omaha which had a large population of Czech emigrants from Austria-Hungary since the 1880s. By the time he finished kindergarten, his family decided to move to Sioux City, Iowa. His father was paralyzed in an accident at work, forcing Babbitt to become a breadwinner at an early age.
In the late 1920s, Babbitt had decided to follow the career of an animator. At the time, the industry was providing career opportunities for hopeful young artists. In 1929, Babbitt was among the first animators hired by a new animation studio, Terrytoons (1929-1973). The studio had been established by experienced animator Paul Terry, and its headquarters were located in Long Island, New York.
In 1932, Babbitt applied for a job at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Los Angeles. The studio was more prestigious than Terrytoons, and was reputed to offer better salaries for its top talents. Babbitt was initially hired as an assistant animator, but was soon promoted to a regular animator in recognition of his talents. He was put to work in animated short films, helping animate characters such as Mickey Mouse, Pluto, and the Big Bad Wolf.
When the studio started working on its first animated feature film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" , Babbitt was entrusted with animating the Evil Queen. It was one of the toughest assignments on the film, as the character was not rotoscoped (unlike several of the others). There was an effort to make the character "regally beautiful", to have her movements be graceful, and for her emotions to be primarily expressed through her lovely mouth and eyes. Babbitt and his assistants reportedly produced enough drawings of the Queen to fill a paper house.
His efforts on the feature film were rewarded with a salary increase. Babbitt was one of the highest-paying jobs in the studio. For the first time in his life, he could afford a large house, three cars, and two servants. At about this time, Babbit married his first wife. She was the actress and dancer Marge Champion (1919-2020). She had been hired as a dance model for "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and had impressed Babbitt. Their marriage only lasted to 1940, ending in divorce.
During the late 1930s, Babbitt worked on two other feature films "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia". He animated Geppetto in "Pinocchio", the protagonist's father. He also designed several characters for two segments of Fantasia: "The Nutcracker Suite" and "The Pastoral Symphony". Among his creations were Disney's versions of the gods Zeus, Vulcan, and Boreas.
In 1941, came the Disney animators' strike. Many of the studio's animators wanted to unionize in order to achieve better working conditions. Babbitt became one of the strike's leaders, though he was primarily campaigning for the rights of others and not his own self-interest. At one point, Babbitt and studio head Walt Disney nearly had a fist fight over a verbal insult. Studio staff intervened to stop them.
Following the strike, Babbitt and Walt Disney continued working together for a while, despite their mutual distrust and hostility. Babbitt found a friendlier working environment at his next employer, Warner Bros. Cartoons. His career was interrupted for a few years by military service in the Pacific War. In the post-war years, Babbitt was among the early staff of the animation studio United Productions of America (UPA, 1941-2000). The studio had been established by former Disney personnel, and Babbitt found himself working alongside former colleagues.
UPA was noted for its "very flat" and stylized designs, in contrast with Disney's style. They were considered as one of the most innovative animated studios of the late 1940s and early 1950s. Babbitt worked on several of their award-winning shorts until 1955. He subsequently acquired partial ownership of Quartet Films, a studio primarily working on television commercials.
Over the following decades, Babbitt rarely worked on theatrical films. But he was eventually hired by animator Richard Williams (1933-2019) to serve as the lead animator for the unfinished feature film "The Thief and the Cobbler". Babbitt designed several of the film's characters. The film was in production from 1964 until 1993, and was eventually released in a partially finished form. Babbitt did not live long enough to finish the film or to see it released. During that film's production, Babbitt also provided some character animation for "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure" (1977).
In the early 1990s, Babbitt was invited by executive Roy E. Disney (Walt's nephew) to reconcile himself with Disney and its staff. Babbitt had reunions with his former rivals Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. He died in March 1992, at the age of 84. He was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, located in Hollywood Hills. Babbitt was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 2007. A small collection of Babbitt's personal films and home movies was eventually acquired by the Academy Film Archive. Babbitt is long gone, but continues to have a high reputation among animation historians and fans of American animation.Animator- Animation Department
- Producer
- Director
Often cited as one of the greatest animators of all time, Vladimir 'Bill' Tytla was born of Ukrainian immigrant parentage in Yonkers, New York, in October 1904. His close-knit family strongly supported his artistic inclinations. By the tender age of nine he had become set on his course after attending a screening of Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) (a creation by America's first successful pioneer animator, Winsor McCay, filmed for use in his vaudeville act). Emotionally volatile and prone to truancy, Tytla studied briefly at the New York Evening School of Industrial Design but yearned for work in his chosen field. In 1920, he was hired to write title cards for Paramount animations, at six days a week for $1.50 a day. His prodigious output earned him the nickname "Tytla the Titler". His first gigs as animator were on Mutt & Jeff cartoons for the Barré-Bowers Studio in the Bronx and for Paul Terry in Greenwich Village, bringing to life 'Aesop's Fables'. Dissatisfied with the poor standard of animation at 'Terrytoons', Tytla traveled abroad in 1928 and spent eighteen months in Europe touring countless museums and galleries and attending art classes. He studied sculpture (under the French master Charles Despiau) and painting (significantly influenced by the works of Dutch renaissance artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder). He returned to New York with more strings to his bow and immediately slotted in to his old job as a more accomplished and sophisticated animator. A colleague, Art Babbitt, became one of his closest friends. When Babbitt joined the Disney Organisation in 1932, he urged Tytla to follow. Two years later, Tytla traded in his job security at 'Terrytoons', moved to the West Coast to join Disney as a bona fide animator, albeit at a reduced salary. Before long, Tytla gained a reputation as one of the fastest and best draftsmen in the business. Over time, he acquired a new, rather more complimentary, sobriquet as "The Michelangelo of Animation".
One of Tytla's great strengths was an intuitive flair for character animation and for imbuing his creations with feeling. There was also a three dimensional quality to his work, very much the product of his new-found expertise in sculpture. As chief animator of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), he created both Doc and Grumpy. He also brought to life the villainous puppet master Stromboli in Pinocchio (1940), the monstrous demon Chernabog in Fantasia (1940), the delightful Jose Carioca and Pedro the Mail Plane in Saludos Amigos (1942), and, perhaps most memorably, the baby elephant Dumbo (1941) (plus his assorted fellow pachyderms). Had it not been for joining a strike action (led by his friend Babbitt) by 300 members of the Cartoonists Guild in support of better wages and film credits for assistants and production staff, Tytla may have seen out his career at Disney. As it turned out, the strike led to bitter acrimony between management and union supporters. Babbitt was fired in 1941, having incurred Walt Disney's lasting wrath. Following a lengthy legal case, he was briefly reinstated for a year. Like Babbitt, Tytla began to feel uncomfortable in this divisive environment and left the company in 1943. He was later to regret that decision. Back at his old stomping grounds at 'Terrytoons' and Paramount, he became more and more dissatisfied with modernist trends and methodologies in animation, plus lower-than-ever standards. This added to the law of diminishing returns in his own work. By the 1950's, Tytla was working on television commercials for Tempo Productions in New York's 'Animation Alley'. He briefly headed his own production company by the end of the decade, but business acumen had never been his forte and the venture failed. The last few years of his life were marred by ill-health, including blindness in his left eye. He died on his Connecticut dairy farm in December 1968. Tytla's contributions to animation were indelible. In his own words, the key ingredient being "the feeling and vitality you get into the work".Animator- Writer
- Animation Department
- Art Department
Joe Grant was born on 15 May 1908 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer, known for Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He was married to Jenny Grant. He died on 6 May 2005 in Glendale, California, USA.Writer, Character Designer, Storyboard Artist- Director
- Animation Department
- Producer
David Hand was born on 23 January 1900 in Plainfield, New Jersey, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Bambi (1942), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Mickey's Birthday Party (1953). He was married to Josephine Hale Marks. He died on 11 October 1986 in San Luis Obispo, California, USA.Director, Animator- Animation Department
- Director
- Producer
Ben Sharpsteen was born on 4 November 1895 in Tacoma, Washington, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Dumbo (1941), Pinocchio (1940) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). He died on 20 December 1980 in Santa Rosa, California, USA.Director, Animator- Director
- Animation Department
- Art Department
Clyde Geronimi was born on 12 June 1901 in Chiavenna, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director, known for Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953). He died on 24 April 1989 in Newport Beach, California, USA.Director, Animator- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Jack Kinney was born on 29 March 1909 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Dumbo (1941), Pinocchio (1940) and Make Mine Music (1946). He was married to Eva Jane Sinclair and Virginia Schulte. He died on 9 February 1992 in Glendale, California, USA.Director, Animator, Writer- Writer
- Animation Department
- Art Department
Bill Peet was born on 29 January 1915 in Grandview, Indiana, USA. He was a writer, known for Cinderella (1950), Dumbo (1941) and Sleeping Beauty (1959). He was married to Margaret Brunst. He died on 11 May 2002 in Studio City, California, USA.Writer, Storyboard Artist- Animation Department
- Writer
- Art Department
Ken Anderson was born on 17 March 1909 in Seattle, Washington, USA. He was a writer, known for Cinderella (1950), Robin Hood (1973) and The Aristocats (1970). He was married to Polly Anderson. He died on 13 December 1993 in La Cañada Flintridge, California, USA.Art Director, Writer- Writer
- Animation Department
- Director
Dick Huemer was born on 2 January 1898 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). He died on 30 November 1979 in Burbank, California, USA.Writer, Animator, Director- Animation Department
- Writer
Albert Hurter was born on 11 May 1883 in Zürich, Switzerland. He was a writer, known for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940). He died on 28 March 1942 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Sketch Artist, Character Designer- Art Department
- Animation Department
- Art Director
Gustaf Adolf Tenggren was a Swedish-American illustrator. He is best known for his Arthur Rackham-influenced fairy-tale style and use of silhouetted figures with caricatured faces. Tenggren was a chief illustrator for The Walt Disney Company in the late 1930s, in what has been called the Golden Age of American animation, when animated feature films such as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Fantasia", "Bambi" and "Pinocchio" were produced. Tenggren's early schooling and artistic influences were solidly grounded in Scandinavian techniques, motifs and myths; he worked with illustrating in the popular Swedish folklore and fairy tales annual "Bland Tomtar och Troll/Among Gnomes and Trolls", where he succeeded illustrator John Bauer. After his first exhibition in 1920, Tenggren immigrated to the U.S. where he joined his sister in Cleveland, Ohio. Moving to New York City in 1922, he made a name for himself in magazine illustration and advertising, while continuing to illustrate children's books.Sketch Artist- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Writer
Mary Blair was born on 21 October 1911 in McAlester, Oklahoma, USA. She was a writer, known for Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953) and Cinderella (1950). She was married to Lee Blair. She died on 26 July 1978 in Soquel, California, USA.Visual Development Artist- Animation Department
- Art Director
- Art Department
He painted backgrounds for Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" and "Lady and the Tramp" plus others. Walt Disney noticed Earle's work after Earle created the avant-garde 'look' for the Oscar/Cannes-award-winning short "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom". Earle was already an established artist at 13, when he held his first exhibition in France. At 23, Earle sold his first watercolor to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In the 1940s he painted over 800 landscapes for Christmas cards.Background Artist- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
Burt Gillett was an animator from the state of New York, and a notable director of animated short films. He directed about a 100 short films between 1920 and 1940, but is best remembered for directing "Three Little Pigs" (1933) for the Disney studio.
Gillett started his film career c. 1916, when he was hired by the animation studio "International Film Service" (1915-1921). It was a subsidiary company of the International News Service, owned by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). The studio focused on creating adaptations for then-popular comic strips, such as "Krazy Kat," "The Katzenjammer Kids," and "Happy Hooligan."
Gillett worked in relative obscurity, until 1929 when hired by the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Studio head Walt Disney was facing a problem at the time, because Ub Iwerks was the only experienced animator on the studio's staff. Walt decided to head to New York City and to offer employment to a number of experienced animators working in the city's studios. Gillett was the second animator to accept Walt's offer, following Ben Sharpsteen.
By the summer of 1929, Gillett had become on the Disney's leading directors. He took over control of the "Mickey Mouse" film series, starting with the short film "Wild Waves". In 1930, Gillett also started directing films in the "Silly Symphonies" film series, an anthology which focused on one-shot characters. His first film in the series was "Cannibal Capers", featuring the tribal dance of a cannibal tribe.
Two of Gillett's short films won the "Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film": "Flowers and Trees" (1932) and "Three Little Pigs" (1933). "Flowers and Trees" was the first commercially released film to be produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process, an is credited as a milestone in the development of color films. "Three Little Pigs" introduced Disney's version of the Big Bad Wolf (also known as "Zeke Wolf") and the Three Little Pigs. The characters later became regularly featured characters in Disney comic strips and comic books.
Due to his newfound fame in the animation industry, Gillett was offered a more lucrative position as the new studio head of the animation studio Van Beuren Studios. Gillett started working there in 1934, and helped the studio transition to producing only color cartoon shorts.
While at Van Beuren, Gillett introduced the film series "Rainbow Parade." It was a "Silly Symphonies"-style anthology series, produced fully in Technicolor. Gillett personally directed many of the series' films. His most notable works for the studio included the "Molly Moo-Cow" sub-series (1935-1936), three animated adaptation of the popular comic strip "Toonerville Folks" (1908-1955), and a few color films for Felix the Cat.
Gillett's policies at the Van Beuren studios were controversial at the time. In order to compete effectively with the Disney studio, Gillett adopted several of the methods and techniques used by Disney. This made the studio's products seem more modern, but their films were seen as derivative. Gillett also fired several animators who had failed to meet his quality standards. His most controversial policy was forcing employees to work overtime to complete films, without any compensation for the extra hours.
In the mid-1930s, the Animated Motion Picture Workers Union (AMPWU) filed a complain against Van Beuren with the National Labor Relations Board. Their complain was based on Gillett's policies, but the Board decided in favor of the studio management. Gillett celebrated his victory by firing union agitators.
The Van Beuren studio shut down in 1936, leaving Gillett temporarily unemployed. The studio had lost its main distributor, RKO Pictures, and was unable to find another distributor. RKO had signed an exclusive deal to distribute Disney's films, and most major film studios already had animation subsidiaries.
Gillett was re-hired by the Disney studio, and he returned to directing films. His most notable film during this period of his career was the horror comedy "Lonesome Ghosts" (1937). It featured Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as ghost hunters. The film's ghosts were portrayed as malicious pranksters. The short has received a number of adaptations of its own, including scenes in Disney-related video games.
In 1938, Gillett was hired by the Walter Lantz Studio. He worked as a director for a hand full of films, most notably introducing the new character Lil' Eightball, as a caricature of an African-American child. The character starred in three animated shorts, but was then retired. Gillett also directed a few entries in the popular "Andy Panda" series.
Gillett retired from the animation industry in 1940, and lived the rest of his life out of the limelight. He died in 1971, at the age of 80. His fame in the animation industry endures, in part due to directing several highly regarded short films, and in part due to his pioneering work in producing color films. Animation histories often include both his accomplishments and his controversial decisions.Director, Animator- Director
- Animation Department
- Additional Crew
Jack King was born on 4 November 1895 in Alabama, USA. He was a director, known for The Magical World of Disney (1954), Modern Inventions (1937) and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (1961). He died on 4 October 1958 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Director, Animator- Director
- Writer
- Animation Department
Jack Hannah was born on 5 January 1913 in Nogales, Arizona, USA. He was a director and writer, known for The Magical World of Disney (1954), Matty's Funnies with Beany and Cecil (1959) and Superstar Goofy (1972). He died on 11 June 1994 in Burbank, California, USA.Director, Animator, Writer- Animation Department
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Dick Lundy was born on 14 August 1907 in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, USA. He was a director and assistant director, known for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The King of Ads (1991) and Charlotte's Web (1973). He was married to Anne and Juanita Sheridan. He died on 7 April 1990 in San Diego County, California, USA.Director, Animator- Animation Department
- Director
- Additional Crew
Bill Justice graduated as a portrait painter from the John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis in 1935. He joined the Disney Organisation two years later, after moving to California. Highlights of his 42-year long career with Walt Disney as director/animator include bringing to life the characters of Thumper ('Bambi') and Chip'n'Dale, as well as animating the title sequence ('Mickey Mouse Club March') from the 1950's TV series The Mickey Mouse Club (1955). He also directed a number of animated short films, three of which received Academy Award nominations: The Truth About Mother Goose (1957) (with Wolfgang Reitherman), explaining the background of classic nursery rhymes, Noah's Ark (1959), and a 'new twist on the old ragtime' theme, A Symposium on Popular Songs (1962).
After 1965, Bill became part of the imagineering/programming team for Disney's Audio-Animatronics figures at Disneyland, specifically involved with the Hall of Presidents, Mission to Mars, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean attractions. He was also noted as an expert in the use of stop motion animation technique in conjunction with live action films, such as Mary Poppins (1964), usually in collaboration with T. Hee and Xavier Atencio. Bill retired in 1979 and was pronounced a Disney Legend in 1996.Animator, Director- Director
- Animation Department
- Sound Department
Bill Roberts was born on 2 August 1899 in Kentucky, USA. He was a director, known for Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942) and Pinocchio (1940). He was married to Lillian Roberts. He died on 18 March 1974 in Tulare County, California, USA.Director, Animator- Director
- Writer
- Producer
James Algar studied at Stanford where he developed his skills as a cartoonist by drawing for the university's satirical magazine, The Chaparral. He joined the Disney Organisation in 1934, initially as animator. He directed the classic "Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment of Fantasia (1940), as well as several sequences of Bambi (1942). Algar was one of several key personnel to whom Walt Disney delegated higher executive functions. During the 1950's, he assumed the mantle of chief writer/director for Disney's True Life Adventure series, turning out such Oscar-winning documentaries as The Living Desert (1953) and The Vanishing Prairie (1954).
Algar was named a Disney Legend in 1998 and has been recipient of the Look Magazine Movie Award for outstanding achievement in production.Director- Animation Department
- Director
- Additional Crew
Charles August "Nick" Nichols was an American animator and film director. He was born in Milford, Utah, a small ranching town.
Nichols started his career at the Dsney studio. His first film credit was for the film "Pinocchio" (1940), where he animated the villainous Coachman. He served as a film director for several short films, introducing characters such as Morris the Midget Moose. He also worked in then popular Pluto series.
Nichols found a new career when working with the animation studio Hanna-Barbera. He co-directed the popular film "Charlotte's Web" (1973), and helped create such series as "Hong Kong Phooey" and "Goober and the Ghost Chasers".
He returned to the Disney studio in the 1980s, where his most notable work were his contributions to the final season of the television series "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (1988-1991). He died in 1992, at the age of 82.Director, Animator- Writer
- Animation Department
As the creator of 'Scrooge McDuck', Carl Barks did more than any other comic book artist to widen the popularity of Donald Duck, bringing in the process a vast array of memorable supporting characters into the Disney universe, among them Uncle Scrooge himself, Gladstone Gander, Gyro Gearloose (and his Little Helper), the Beagle Boys, and the Junior Woodchucks.
Unlike many other artists working (all anonymously) for the Disney company, Barks did not mindlessly churn out condescending, forgettable stories of a childish nature during his 24-year stint on the Disney Ducks. He consistently produced delightful top-quality material, both in his scripts and in his art as well as in his dialogues, which echoed with deep human resonance. "I polished and polished on the scripts and drawings until I had done the best I could in the time available", he said. In both types of stories -- the 10-page comedies and the longer adventure stories -- he produced between 1942 and 1966, he managed to convey the intricacies and subtleties of the full scope of human emotions (from envy and cynicism and alarm and desperation to joy and scorn and triumph and smugness) while capturing the essence of exotic locations from the four corners of the world (from scorching deserts and primal forests to humid jungles and freezing snow-clad mountains through the urban setting of Duckburg).
His mastery at this is witnessed to by, among others, Newsweek's homage to his artistry and by Time's conclusion that "Scrooge and his creator Carl Barks belong in the great mainstream of American Folklore." Beyond that is the plain fact that he was known to his readers simply as "the good artist" (a descriptor necessary during a time when the Disney company didn't identify any of its cartoonists). His publishers tried in the early '50s to replace him on the 10-page comedies in Walt Disney's Comics and Stories so that he could concentrate on the longer adventure epics in Donald Duck and Uncle $crooge (these were the three titles that contained the bulk of Barks' output through the years); they were promptly flooded with a barrage of pleading and irate letters from readers demanding that "the good artist" be brought back.
Among his many fans were George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg, who were inspired by the adventure comic books. One South American adventure in particular ("The Prize of Pizarro", Uncle $crooge nr 26, June-August 1959) inspired sequences in all three Indiana Jones films (the booby traps both in the lost temple in the opening pre-credits sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and in the final scenes of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as the flood through the mines of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)). In an homage printed in Uncle Scrooge: His Life & Times (edited by Edward Summer and published by Gary Kurtz), Lucas writes that when he discovered the McDuck character as a kid, he liked him "so much that I immediately went out and bought all the Uncle $crooge comics I could find on the newsstand. My greatest source of enjoyment in Carl Barks' comics is in the imagination of his stories .... The stories are also very cinematic .... these comics are a priceless part of our literary heritage." Indeed, the titles of his adventures (many of which were inspired by the National Geographic) duly resonate with exoticism and adventure: "The Mummy's Ring", "Terror of the River", "Mystery of the Swamp", "Ghost of the Grotto", "Lost in the Andes", "Sheriff of Bullet Valley", "Trail of the Unicorn", "The Golden Helmet", "The Seven Cities of Cibola", etc...
His stories were constantly reproduced in Disney comics across the globe, after his retirement in 1966 (the same year that Walt Disney, who was born nine months after Barks, died). And soon his 6,371 comics pages (according to one count) from some 450 comic books were being reprinted (by then computer-colored) in impressive coffee-table volumes and hand-sewn hardback tomes, not just in the United States, but throughout the western world (Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, etc...).
Certainly the most widely read comic book artist of all time, Barks is also in all probability, what with Disney being the world's largest publisher of children's magazines and books (every year over two billion people around the globe read a Disney book or magazine, the company claims), the most widely-read author of any type of reading material of the 20th century.
Born to a homesteading family in Oregon on March 27, 1901, Carl Barks left school at 15 and spent the next two decades "in grim and demanding jobs" (to quote Michael Barrier's "Carl Barks and the Art of the Comic Book". These included rancher, logger, railroad repairman and printer. During the Depression, he went on to become an illustrator for a humor magazine, eventually becoming its most productive member. He joined the Disney studio in 1935, where he became a story man on the animated cartoons of a character created a year earlier (a duck by the name of Donald) and worked with such people as Harry Reeves, Chuck Couch, Jack Hannah, Homer Brightman and Nick George. Health problems eventually forced Barks to leave the Burbank studio during World War II for the dry air of the California desert, where he made the transition to comic books.
And so, it was after the age of 40, in an era when most people had little more than a third of their lives in front of them, that Carl Barks made the fateful jump of his life, the one that would leave his name an immortal one in the annals of what the French call "le neuvième art" (the ninth art form). And yet, it would not be until after his retirement that his name would, slowly but surely, become known to the mainstream public. It was during the 1960s that persistent fans (among them his official biographer, Michael Barrier) finally managed to identify "the good artist" (also dubbed the Duckman and the comic book king), become his correspondents, and proceed to make his name known to the outside world.
Despite having retired (and as his name was slowly becoming famous), "Unca Carl" did not remain inactive. He turned to painting, specifically signed oil paintings of his Disney Ducks, paintings that today easily fetch thousands of dollars and whose prices have occasionally topped $100,000. Indeed, it is easy to forget that Barks' retirement years lasted far longer than his comic book career and he spent many more years before the canvas than he did over the drawing board. In fact, Barks lived to the ripe old age of 99, and it is somewhat amazing to realize how vast an amount of time this actually means. His life spans such an extensive amount of time that his date of birth is further removed from that of his death than it is to the Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the untamed wilderness west of the Mississippi (including Oregon, the region where the Barks family would eventually settle).
He was sprightly and active until the very last. People half his age reported that he could remember events they had long forgotten. His pace was such that during his 1994 trip to Europe (his first outside North America) to celebrate Donald's 60th birthday, young Disney handlers and PR staff (imagine yuppies in their 30s) at Paris' Euro Disneyland had to quicken their pace to keep up with the then-93-year-old man. His philosophy could be summarized in these words: "I worked hard at trying to make something as good as I could possibly make it... I always tried to write a story I wouldn't mind buying myself."Writer
He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck