Disney's Nine Old Men (+5)

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Disney's Nine Old Men were the core animators at Walt Disney Productions during its first four decades and are credited with having created some of the studio's most legendary works, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to The Rescuers (1977).

[Note: To see who's who, click "comments" under the images on the right >>>]

Disney's Nine Old Men

• Les Clark
• Marc Davis
• Ollie Johnston
• Milt Kahl
• Ward Kimball (c)
• Eric Larson
• John Lounsbery (c)
• Wolfgang Reitherman (c)
• Frank Thomas (c)

Plus Five

• Ub Iwerks (C) - not one of the Nine Old Men, but as the creator of Mickey Mouse, he is equally important in the history of classic Disney animation.

• Rolly Crump (C) - animator who helped create the look of early Disneyland attractions like It’s a Small World, the Haunted Mansion, and the Enchanted Tiki Room

• Don Lusk (C) - over more than a quarter of a century worked on every major animated Disney feature film from Snow White to 101 Dalmatians.

• Bill Pete (N/C) - joined Disney in 1937 and worked first on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs near the end of its production. Progressively, his involvement in the Disney studio's animated feature films and shorts increased, and he remained there until early in the development of The Jungle Book (1967).

• Ruthie Tompson (C) - another original Disney animator who was not one of the Nine Old Men, but at 111 years, lived to be a very, very old woman!

(c) = Connected

Trivia

- Walt Disney jokingly referred to the group as his "Nine Old Men," a reference to Franklin D. Roosevelt's dismissive description of the nine justices of the US Supreme Court, despite the fact that the animators were only in their thirties and forties at the time,

- Les Clark joined Disney in 1927. The other eight were not hired until 1934 and 1935. His specialty was animating Mickey Mouse and he was the only one of the Nine Old Men to ever work on that character, along with animator Ub Iwerks.

- Marc Davis was responsible for character design for both the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion attractions at Disneyland.

- Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas co-authored the animator's bible The Illusion of Life, which contained the 12 basic principles of animation and helped preserve the knowledge of the techniques that were developed at the studio.

- Milt Kahl is often considered the finest draughtsman of the Disney animators. He would often refine the characters sketches from Bill Peet with the ideas of Ken Anderson. For many years the final look for the characters in the Disney films were designed by Kahl,

- Ward Kimball was also a jazz trombonist, who founded and led the seven-piece Dixieland band Firehouse Five Plus Two. The band made at least 13 LP records.

- Eric Larson was responsible for spotting and training new animators at Disney in the 1970s. Many of the top talents at Disney today were trained by Larson in the 70s and 80s.

- John Lounsbery who was the first of the animators to pass away, was working on the Disney film The Rescuers when he passed away in 1976, at the age of 64 - not quite yet an "Old Man".

- Wolfgang Reitherman's son, Bruce, was the voice of Mowgli in Disney's The Jungle Book.

- All nine "Old Men" were named Disney Legends in 1989.