Walt Disney Co. Animator Ollie Johnston has Died at 95
By Ryan • Apr 17th, 2008 • Category: News for Creatives (archives)NEW YORK.-Walt Disney Co. animator Ollie Johnston, whose credits include “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Pinocchio,” “Fantasia,” “Cinderella,” and “Alice in Wonderland,” has died. He was 95.
Ollie Johnston was the last of Disney’s “Nine Old Men,” his trusted cadre of animators that included Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas, Wolfgang Reitherman, Les Clark, Eric Larson, John Lounsbery, Milt Kahn and Marc Davis.
Johnston began his career at Disney as an apprentice animator on such Mouse House shorts as Mickey’s Rival, More Kittens and the Academy Award-winning The Tortoise and the Hare. He went on to work as animator and directing animator on more than 24 feature films.
He was credited for putting the heart into Disney’s characters, virtually inventing the now accepted technique of giving his animations human feelings and emotions.
Johnston received the National Medal of Arts in 2005 and was the subject of a documentary released in 1995 called ‘Frank and Ollie’, which was about him and his close friend Frank Thomas.
Among the most famous scenes he created were Pinocchio’s nose growing when he lied to the Blue Fairy in the 1940 movie; Thumper reciting his lesson about eating clover greens under his mother’s watchful eye in Bambi and Baloo performing The Bare Necessities in The Jungle Book.
Ryan is
Email this author | All posts by Ryan
