Hal Ambro is my 87th pick to be honored as a Disney Legend.
His animation credits at Disney included Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, the "Johnny Appleseed" segment
of Melody Time, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Song of the South, Cinderella, (Ambro animated many ot the scenes with the fairy godmother), So Dear to My Heart, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Melody, Lady and the
Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone,
Mary Poppins, Melody and Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.
Ambro became Hanna-Barbera's supervising animator for
"Heidi's Song" before he left in 1982. The next year, Ambro began
teaching character animation at the California Institute of the Arts in
Valencia.
Background artist Tom Codrick takes the 86th slot on my picks for the Disney Legend honor. He was a layout artist, art director and background specialist for some of the best loved Disney films. He was a key layout man for Disney Studios for 35 years. Films such as Peter Pan, Bambi, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Victory Through Air Power, Fantasia, Lady and the Tramp, The Jungle Book, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Sleeping Beauty, Melody Time and Alice in Wonderland were heavily influenced by Codrick's style and vision. He was the layout artist for five episodes of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and he appeared in one episode of the show.
Charles Philippi is my 85th pick for this Disney Hall of fame. He was an animator who worked on some of the most memorable Disney classics and shorts during the heyday of the 1930s and 1940s.
Dallas McKennon is my 84th choice for the Disney Legend honor.
He performed many character voices for Disney. His
distinctive voice can be heard in movies such as Melody Time (as Johnny
Appleseed’s angel), Lady and the Tramp (as Pedro, Tuffy, the Hyena and the
Professor), Sleeping Beauty (as the owl), Donald Duck and His Friends, One
Hundred and One Dalmatians (as barking dogs), Mary Poppins (as the fox, a
hunting horse, a penguin, a reporter and the carousel keeper) and Bedknobs and
Broomsticks (as a bear). He provided the voice of Cal McNab in Paul Bunyan.
He also did voices for several Disney Attractions, such as
the famous Big Thunder Mountain Railroad safety spiel - “Howdy, folks! Please
keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the train, and remain seated at all
times. (Laugh) Now then, hang onto them hats and glasses, ’cause this here’s
the wildest ride in the wilderness!” He can be heard as the laughing hyenas in
It's a Small World, Ben Franklin in Epcot's The American Adventure, and Zeke in
Country Bear Jamboree. He has been the voice of Andrew Jackson in the Hall of Presidents attraction. He narrated the defunct Disneyland attraction Mine Train
Through Nature's Wonderland and is Deaf Old Man in the Haunted Mansion.
He also played as Charlie Cooney in the 1978 live-action
Disney film, The Cat from Outer Space, a juror in Son of Flubber and a
detective in The Misadventures of Merlin Jones. He was a musical performer in
Bedknobs and Broomsticks taking part in the song “Blow the Man Down.” He was the narrator on the vinyl album The Story of Treasure Island produced by the Disney Company.
Don Griffith started working at Disney when he was 19 years old (in
1937) when the Studio was still on Hyperion. He started out as an inker and
worked his way into doing Background and Layout. He didn't have any training as
an artist before he started working for Disney which is why he thought anyone
could learn how to draw. He worked at the Studio for almost 50 years (until
1984).
Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot was an English film and
television actor who provided the narration for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. He also voiced Bagheera in The Jungle Book, and Sir Ector in The Sword in the Stone, and voiced
Claude in The Enchanted Tiki Room, at Walt Disney World. He also played
Johnathan Lyte in the 1957 live-action film, Johnny Tremain. He narrated a couple of specials for Walt Disney’s Wonderful
World of Color - One Day on Beetle Rock (1967) and One Day at Teton Marsh
(1964) and played the role of Bissonette in Westward Ho, The Wagons (1956). He
had the role of Judge Vasca in the TV series Zorro.
He not only served as the narrator for the film version of Winnie the Pooh, but also as the narrator on the vinyl album Walt Disney Presents Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.
Cliff Nordberg was an animator for the Disney Studios
through the 1940s into the 1970s. You can read more about at the blog 50 MostInfluential Disney Animators. Here is a sampling of Nordberg’s work for Disney:
Hockey Homicide - Animator
Make Mine Music- Animator on All the Cats Join In and Casey
at the Bat
All the Cats Join In - animator
Casey at the Bat - animator
Song of the South- Animator on Minor Characters
Pecos Bill - animator
Melody Time- Animator on Pecos Bill
Cinderella- Animator on Mice, King, and Duke
Alice in Wonderland- Animator on Mad Hatter and March Hare
Susie the Little Blue Coupe - animator
Peter Pan- Animator on Indians
Ben and Me - animator
Lady and the Tramp- Animator on Pound Dogs
Donald in Mathmagic Land - animator
Sleeping Beauty- Animator on Malificent’s Minions and Crow
A Cowboy Needs A Horse - animator
One Hundred and One Dalmatians- Animator on Sgt. Tibbs,
Horace and Jasper
Sword in the Stone- Animator
Robin Hood- Animator
Mary Poppins - animator
Rescuers- Animator on Crocodiles, Dragon Fly, and Swam
Critters
Pete's Dragon - animator
Small One- Supervising Animator
Fox and the Hound- Supervising Animator on Woodpecker and
Bird
Harvey Toombs was an animator who worked on many classic films for the Disney Studios. His animation credits at Disney included Pinocchio, the
"Dance of the Hours" segment of
Fantasia, The Reluctant Dragon, Dumbo, Bambi, Saludos Amigos, Victory Through
Air Power, Home Defense, Donald's Off Day, the "Cold-Blooded
Penguin" segment of The Three
Caballeros, Donald's Crime, Make Mine Music, Song of the South, Fun and Fancy
Free, the "Once Upon a Wintertime", "Bumble Boogie",
"Johnny Appleseed" and "Blame It on the Samba" segments of Melody Time, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Tomorrow We Diet!,
Alice in Wonderland, Teachers are People, Peter Pan, Melody, Ben and Me, Lady
and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, Donald in Mathmagic Land and How to Have an Accident at Work.
He was married to Imagineer and Disney Legend Leota Toombs
and the father of Imagineer Kim Irvine.
Tom Sito is my 79th choice to be named a Disney Legend. The
following information was gathered at his own website and his Wikipedia
page:
Sito has been called a "key figure in the Disney
Renaissance", and one of the One Hundred Most Important People in
Animation. Sito assisted retired Disney animator Shamus Culhane on one of his
final projects, a 1977 education short entitled Protection in the Nuclear Age. Tom
Sito was summoned by his old mentor Richard Williams in 1987 to
animate on Disney/Amblin's Academy Award-winning hit film Who Framed Roger
Rabbit?. Returning to Los Angeles in 1988, Sito became a mainstay of the Disney
Feature Animation division, contributing to the classic films The Little Mermaid,
Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Fantasia 2000, and
Dinosaur. In 2010, Tom Sito was awarded the June Foray Award at
ASIFA-Hollywood's Annie Awards for a lifetime of service to the animation
community.
Layout Artist Victor Haboush is my 78th pick as a Disney Legend. Much of the information here can be found on the Cartoon Brew site.
He attended Art Center College of Design on the G.I. Bill
where he studied extensively with Lorser Feitelson.
On the recommendation of his Art Center classmate and Disney
Legend Eyvind Earle, he was hired at Disney in 1952 to help finish layout on
Peter Pan. His first association with Disney came earlier, when he helped Earle
draw this Golden Book adaptation of Peter Pan. He built up an impressive list
of credits at the studio including assistant art direction on Melody and Toot
Whistle Plunk and Boom, and layout on Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty and
101 Dalmatians.
Vic was one of Tom Oreb’s closest colleagues during the
1950s and they worked together as a team, especially in Disney’s TV commercial
unit.
When Oreb left Disney
to work at John Sutherland Productions, Vic followed. They both soon returned
to Disney to finish Sleeping Beauty, where Vic played a key role in designing
the “Thorn Forest” sequence.
The video below is a non-Disney commercial directed by Haboush.
My 77th choice Hal King was an American animator.
He was notable for his work at the Walt Disney
Studios. Hal King started out like many of his
contemporaries as an inbetweener on shorts in the late 1930s. His first break
into feature animation was on the Three Caballeros, a Latin American-influenced
film made in 1944.
His animation credits at Disney included Donald's Snow Fight, Donald Gets Drafted,
The Vanishing Private, Fall Out-Fall In, The Old Army Game, Home Defense, The
Three Caballeros, Duck Pimples, Hockey Homicide, The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met segment of Make Mine Music, Wet Paint, Lighthouse
Keeping, Song of the South, Clown of the Jungle, Fun and Fancy Free, the Once Upon a Wintertime and Blame It on the Samba segments of Melody Time, So Dear to My Heart, The
Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Test Pilot Donald, Alice in
Wonderland, Susie the Little Blue Coupe, Peter Pan, Ben and Me, Lady and the
Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, Goliath II, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Donald and
the Wheel, The Sword in the Stone, the Disneyland episode "Your Host, Donald Duck", the Walt Disney Presents episode "The Adventures of Chip 'n' Dale",
the Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color episodes "Kids is Kids" and
"Man on Wheels", The Jungle
Book, The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Robin Hood and Winnie the Pooh
and the Honey Tree and Winnie the
Pooh and the Blustery Day. (in which the two featurettes are later part of The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,
along with Winnie the Pooh and Tigger
Too!).
Lonnie was a smart, confident kid, and that persona
projected to the audience. He was the only male Mouseketeer that kids at home
considered cool. Annette also felt this way about him, and the two were an item
(a real couple, not one of the studio arranged matches) for a brief time.
Lonnie has his own web site, on which visitors can learn
about the details of his long pre- and post-MMC careers. He also has given more
published interviews than anyone but Annette on the subject of the Mickey Mouse
Club, in most of which he has been quite frank. You can read more in his 2009 memoir,
Confessions of an Accidental Mouseketeer. This sometimes brutally candid work
has engendered more than a bit of controversy since it was published.
Hugh Fraser was an animator who worked on numerous projects for the Disney Studios. He also worked for Hanna Barbera on Scooby Doo and other cartoons. In 1987 Fraser was awarded the Golden Award by the Motion
Picture Screen Cartoonists Award.
He must have been quite prolific as his name is attached to many, many films and shorts. Here is a sampling of his work.
Snow White(1937)- Animator(uncredited)
Pinocchio(1940)-Animator on Honest John and Gideon
Fantasia(1940)- Animator on Dance of the Hours
Dumbo(1941)- Animator on Gossipy Elephants
Saludos Amigos(1942)- Animator
How to Play Baseball(1942)- Animator
Pluto at the Zoo(1942)- Animator(uncredited)
Victory Through Airpower(1943)-Animator
Victory Vehicles(1943)- Animator
How to Be a Sailor(1944)- Animator
The Eyes to Have It(1945)- Animator
Canine Casanova(1945)- Animator
No Sail(1945)- Animator
Knight for a Day(1945)- Animator
Make Mine Music(1946)-Animator on Casey at the Bat
Squatter’s Rights(1946)- Animator
Frank Duck Brings ’em Alive(1946)- Animator
Double Dribble(1946)- Animator
Fun and Fancy Free(1947)-Animator
The Big Wash(1948)- Animator
Mickey and the Seal(1948)- Animator
Pluto’s Suprise Package(1949)- Animator
Pluto’s Sweater(1949)-Animator
Bubble Bee(1949)- Animator
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad(1949)- Animator on
Wind and the Willows
Hal Smith, known for his role as Otis the town drunk on the Andy Griffith Show and as Mr. Whitaker on Adventures in Odyssey also had numerous roles with the Disney Studios. He is my 74th pick for the Disney Legend honor. He did many voice roles for Disney, including Goofy (after
Pinto Colvig's death), Grumpy and Sleepy (also after Pinto Colvig's death),
Winnie the Pooh (after Sterling Holloway's retirement) and Owl in the Winnie
the Pooh franchise, Gyro Gearloose and Flintheart Glomgold in DuckTales, he also voiced an older
version of Huey, Dewey and Louie in the episode of DuckTales, "Duck to the Future", the Auctioneer in The Small One and Philippe the Horse in Beauty and the Beast. He voiced Dink and
Haimish in Disney’s Fluffy Dogs. He
was Goofy and the Water Rat on Mickey’s
Christmas Carol, the slob elephant in The
Jungle Book, and Joe Magee in Talespin.
He also appeared in the live action film Son
ofFlubber as a bartender and as
a courthouse guard in The Million Dollar
Duck. He was the narrator and a few Disney albums as well.
Preston Blair was an animator for Disney on several classic films and shorts. He left the studios during the 1941 strike. Some of the Disney films he worked on are:
Peter Ustinov is considered by some to be Movie Royalty. He worked for the Disney Studios on more than once occasion, as both a live action actor and voice actor for animated films. He voiced Prince John and King Richard in Robin Hood and also played the title character
in Blackbeard's Ghost. He was Dr. Snodgrass in Treasure of Matecumbe, and Hnup Wan in
One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing.
He also guest-starred on The Muppet Show in episode 112 and
made a cameo appearance in The Great Muppet Caper.
Robert Stokes was an animator for Disney Studios during their heyday years when they first began producing feature length animation. He is credited with helping to develop and draw the evil queen in
Drawing of Evil Queen by Robert Stokes
Snow White. His work with Disney includes the following:
1940 Fantasia
(animator - segment "The Nutcracker Suite")
1940 Pinocchio (animator - uncredited)
1939 The Autograph
Hound (Short) (animator - uncredited)
1938 Mother Goose
Goes Hollywood (Short) (animator - uncredited)
1938 Ferdinand the
Bull (Short) (animator - uncredited)
My 72nd pick for the Disney Legend honor is George Johnson, the voice of Goofy. He provided the voice for the lovable Goofy from 1939 - 1943. His voice is heard in several films including Goofy and Wilbur, How to Fish, Goofy's Glider,
Baggage Buster, The Art of Self Defense, The Nifty Nineties, How to Play
Baseball, The Olympic Champ, How to Swim, How to Fish, On Vacation, the El
Gaucho Goofy segment from Saludos Amigos and Victory Vehicles.
Mel Leven, my 69th pick for the Disney Legend honor, is most famous as the composer of the Cruella Devil song in 101 Dalmatians. He
also wrote the story and new lyrics to sixteen tunes for the film Babes in
Toyland and"When
The Buzzards Return To Hinckley Ridge" for the 1969 Disney animated short, It's Tough to Be a Bird, which went on to win the Academy Award for
Best Short Subject in 1970. He wrote the music to "Litterbug Shame on You" for the final Donald Duck short The Litterbug.
Al Bertino worked for the Disney company as an animator, story-man, writer, and imagineer. He was involved as a writer or animator in several Disney shorts including: Plutopia, Fun and Fancy Free, Make Mine Music, Californy er Bust and Private Pluto. This is an excerpt form his Wikipedia page: He was an animator for Pinocchio and Fantasia, Bertino also wrote for
the Wonderful World of Disney, and helped create a number of attractions at
Disneyland, including Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Haunted Mansion, Country Bear
Jamboree, and America Sings. In 1986, he won a Golden Award (given to Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists). The
giant bear at the Country Bear Jamboree called 'Big Al' was a self-portrait.
"Bertino began work for Walt Disney in 1935.
In a 1945 Disney short, Hockey Homicide, all the
characters are named for members of the Disney staff including "Ice Box
Bertino", who, as a running gag, repeatedly gets into hockey fights with
"Fearless Ferguson" (named for Norm Ferguson)."
Albert Hurter is my 69th choice as a Disney Legend. He worked for the Studios as an inspirational sketch artist whose art provided the mood, atmosphere and setting of some famous Disney Studios films, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Dumbo, Pinocchio, and Peter Pan. In 1949, over 700 of his drawings were compiled in a book by
Ted Sears called "He Drew As He Pleased - A Sketchbook by Albert
Hurter", with a brief tribute from Walt Disney.
My 66th choice is Lucille La Verne, who had only one role for Disney Studios, but it was a big one. she was the voice actress for one of the greatest Disney villains of all-time, the wicked step-mother/witch in Snow White. She also provided some live action inspiration for her movements and gestures. Cari Keebuagh observed "One particularly
popular legend claims that Disney, unsatisfied with the voice of the Hag, asked
La Verne to try the scene again. She excused herself to the restroom, returned,
and performed the lines in a perfectly sinister and “hag-ish” voice. Disney,
impressed, asked what she had done in the restroom. La Verne answered him that
all she had done was remove her false teeth." You can read her article on La Verne here.
I have noticed the voices of the Disney villains do not get a lot of love from the Legends committee. Maybe it time to change that!
Billy Bletcher is my 65th choice to be named a Disney Legend. He is most famous as the original voice of Pete. According to the Disney Wiki:
Walt Disney shares a laugh with Billy Bletcher
His notable Disney roles included the original voices of
Pete and Big Bad Wolf, Horace Horsecollar in Mickey's Mellerdrammer, Friday in
Mickey's Man Friday, King Midas in The Golden Touch, Dirty Bill in The Robber
Kitten, Judge Owl in Who Killed Cock Robin?, the Cat Prosecutor in Pluto's
Judgement Day, Captain Katt in Three Blind Mouseketeers, the Robot Butler in
Modern Inventions, the bass singer and villain on radio in Donald's Ostrich,
the short member of the Lonesome Ghosts in Lonesome Ghosts, the Bull in
Farmyard Symphony, the Security Guard in The Autograph Hound, the Magic Lamp in
Pluto's Dream House, a clown in Dumbo, the dogcatcher in Canine Casanova, Detective
Hennessey in Duck Pimples, Donald's boss in Old Sequoia, the motel proprietor
in Wide Open Spaces and the music store proprietor in Pluto's Blue Note.
Some other works he voiced for Disney Studios were Mr. Gator in the Happy Amigos, Peewee Pete in Canvas Black Duck, Al Muldoon in How to be a Detective, Pierre in Timber, and a Nazi in Der Fuhrer's Face.
Otto Englander is my 64th choice to be named a Disney Legend. Englander was a Storyman on animated films for 22 years; he was story
director on Dumbo, Pinocchio, Fantasia,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, The Fox Hunt, Goofy and Wilbur, The Polar Trappers,
Don Donald, The Fur Trappers, Three Blind Mouseketeers, Broken Toys, Moving Day, Mickey Cuts
Up and other Disney Studio features.
He was also a screenwriter for several episodes of the television show Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.
Ferdinand Horvath worked at the Disney Studios on everything from advertising
to illustrations for a pop-up book to painting backgrounds and doing layouts to
constructing three dimensional models (such as making a windmill for study for
"The Old Mill") to character designs and gags for over fifty Silly
Symphonies and Mickey Mouse shorts. His work can be seen in the following short
films: MICKEY MOUSE SHORTS: "Mickey's Man Friday," "The Band
Concert," "Mickey's Service Station," "Mickey's
Garden," "Mickey's Circus," "Mickey's Rival,"
"Moose Hunters," "Boat Builders," "Clock
Cleaners," "Brave Little Tailor," "The Fox Hunt,"
"Alpine Climbers," "Polar Trappers," "Lonesome
Ghosts," "Mickey's Trailer," "Society Dog Show,"
"Mickey's Follies" and "Magician Mickey."
Cubby O'Brien is my 62nd choice as a Disney Legend.
O'Brien, like Annette Funicello, was personally selected to
audition for The Mickey Mouse Club by Walt Disney, in the spring of 1955.
Disney had been alerted to him by a staff member, who caught his live
performance at a charity gala.
Though he had little prior experience in singing or dancing,
O'Brien was placed on The Mickey Mouse Club's first-string "Red Team"
right from the start. He quickly picked up enough dance skills to perform in
musical numbers, though his solo performances remained centered around his
drums. He remained with the show for all three seasons (1955–1958) of original
programming, and after filming stopped, went on live-performance tours with
other Mouseketeers to Australia in 1959 and 1960.
Cubby was the only Mouseketeer allowed to play musical
instruments on camera whether this had something to do with Walt casting him or
not is unknown. Certainly Cubby never had the rumors of favoritism surrounding
him like Annette did, possibly because his skill was obvious to all. In the
show's first week, he got to play drums for Talent Round-Up day in a combo with
his father Hack and brother Warren. From then on he was given many opportunities
to play rhythm instruments, but his talent didn't end with music; he was a fine
comedic actor, and learned enough dancing on the show to fake his way through
the numbers. His singing was OK, though he wasn't called on for solos like
Karen Pendleton.
Cubby appeared in the Disney film Westward Ho, the Wagons
with Tommy Cole, Karen, and Doreen Tracey in 1956. The four Mouseketeers had
barely any lines and very few scenes in this tepid Western. As the second
season started, the Mouseketeer production numbers shifted more to emphasizing
older teen couples. Cubby still appeared in comic bits, but he was more often
solo than paired with Karen.
Imagineer Joe Rohde is my 61st choice to be named a Disney Legend. Here are some excerpts form his Wikipedia page:
Rohde is a veteran executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, the
division of The Walt Disney Company that designs and builds Disney's theme
parks and resort hotels. Rohde's formal title is Executive Designer and Vice
President, Creative. Rohde's trademark is
a large collection of earrings he wears in his left ear, all of which are
souvenirs from decades of travel to remote corners of the world. This tradition
began when he stuck his 5 year anniversary pin into his ear. Rohde is the lead
designer of Disney's Animal Kingdom, one of four theme parks at Walt Disney
World Resort in Florida, and the principal creative force behind the park's
Expedition Everest thrill ride, which debuted in 2006. He is one of the lead
designers behind the new Disney Vacation Club property Aulani in Oʻahu, Hawaii.
He was chosen for the role because of his experience with the Island and its
native people, having grown up in Hawaii.
Rohde joined Imagineering in 1980 during the development of
Epcot as a model designer and scenic painter for the theme park's Mexico
pavilion. He later worked as a designer on the refurbishment of Fantasyland at
Disneyland, the Captain EO 3-D film attraction starring singer Michael Jackson,
the Norway pavilion at Epcot and the Adventurers Club, a 1930s-themed bar and
lounge that opened in 1989 within the Pleasure Island entertainment district at
Walt Disney World Resort.
Rohde was featured in an April 2006 Travel Channel
documentary titled Expedition Everest: Journey to Sacred Lands. The program was
produced by Discovery Networks during expeditions to China and Nepal in 2005
called Mission Himalayas. The treks were sponsored by Discovery, Disney, and
Conservation International to promote the Expedition Everest theme park
attraction and conduct scientific and cultural research in remote areas of the
Himalayas. Rohde served as the model for Harrison Hightower, the owner of the
fictional "Hightower Hotel" which houses the Tower of Terror
attraction at Tokyo DisneySea outside Tokyo, Japan.
Currently Rohde is leading the team transforming Disney
California Adventure's Tower of Terror into Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission:
Breakout!. The attraction is expected to open Summer 2017.This new project is
part of the expansion of his role as global creative leader of the Marvel
property.
Keenan Wynn is my 62nd choice as a Disney Legend. He played in several Disney Studios live action films as the bad guy you love to hate. He is most famous for playing Alonzo Hawk in the Absent Minded Professor and The Son of Flubber. According to his Disney Wiki page: Keenan Wynn was a
character actor and son of Disney legend Ed Wynn. He's famous for playing
Disney villains, mostly the villainous businessman, Alonzo Hawk. In Snowball
Express he portrays Martin Ridgeway. He also played the corrupt district
attorney John Slade in The Shaggy D.A., the sequel to classic Disney comedy,
The Shaggy Dog.
a cleanup drawing of the queen's transformation
by animators Campbell Grant and Stan Quackenbush
Stan Quackenbush is on my list simply becasue his name is is so amazing. He was an early animator for Walt Disney Studios, working on some of the better shorts the company produced. A partial list of those films are:Mickey's
Amateurs, The Old Mill, Donald's
Nephews,Wynken, Blynken and Nod, Polar Trappers,Ferdinand the Bull,The Ugly
Duckling and Beach Picnic. He is also one of the animators credited with working on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He was on the team that animated the wicked witch. It is also so fitting that he helped animate early Donald Duck cartoons, with a last name like Quackenbush.
My 60th choice is character actor Jeff York. The following is from York's Wikipedia page: he is perhaps
most remembered for his role as Bud Searcy in Disney's classic Old Yeller and
its 1963 sequel Savage Sam. Beverly Washburn played Lisbeth Searcy, Bud's
daughter. York also appeared in The Great Locomotive Chase, Westward Ho, the
Wagons!, and Johnny Tremain which were all Walt Disney's productions.
York attracted
considerable attention in the mid 1950s with his television portrayal of Mike
Fink, the flamboyant keelboat operator in two episodes of Disney's hugely
popular Davy Crockett miniseries in the episodes "Davy Crockett's Keelboat
Race" and "Davy Crockett and the River Pirates." York was cast
opposite Fess Parker in the role. The first episode featured a memorable
boasting contest and a keelboat race, with Fink's boat named The Gullywumper;
in the second, Crockett and Fink join forces to fight a band of river pirates
who blame their depredations on local Native Americans.
One of the famous lines form the movie is “Girls run and hide, brave men
shiver...I'm Mike Fink, king of the river!”
He also starred
as mountain man/fur trapper Joe Crane in two different Disney series, The Saga
of Andy Burnett, adapted from the Stewart Edward White novel The Long Rifle and
Zorro.
Janet Munro was in a couple of my childhood Disney
favorites, most notably as the kidnapped girl Roberta inSwiss Family Robinson. Munro
also starred as as Katie O'Gill inDarby
O'Gill and the Little People, Lizbeth Hempel in Third Man on the Mountain. She
played Janet Hale inThe
Horsemasters, which aired on Disney's weekly television series. She also
played Katie O'Gill I Captured the King of the Leprechauns, a made
for TV special plugging the upcoming Darby O'Gill movie. She sang the
songPretty Irish Girl with
Sean O'Connery for the same movie.
Dickson served almost twenty
years with Walt Disney World, Co. where as Director of Casting. He was very
active in the creation, development and teaching of numerous training programs.
Among these programs where “Casting for a Role in the Show,” “View from a
Disney Leader,” “Management Disney Style,” “The Disney Approach to People
Management” and “The Disney Keys to Quality Service.” He created the latter as
a program to deliver the Disney quality message to individuals unable to visit
Central Florida.
Darlene Gillespie is my 55th choice as a Disney Legend, and my first Mouseketeer. One of the most popular
Mousketeers in the original Mickey Mouse Club that ran from 1955 to 1958,
Darlene Gillespie rivaled Annette Funicello for the most popular girl on the
show. Plus my wife remembers her and looked up to her!
Darlene was the early favorite
with the show's crew, who were convinced she'd be a star, but circumstances
forestalled this. An amateur performer at fourteen, she was a good dancer, was
blessed with an extraordinary voice, was in Roll Call and the lead performer on
the Red Team for all three seasons on ABC.
Darlene did get several scenes in
Annette's first serial Adventure in Dairyland and new director Sid Miller
seemed nearly as impressed with her talents as first-year director Dik Darley had been. She
remained the second most popular Mouseketeer in terms of fan mail after
Annette, with whom she maintained a friendly working relationship throughout
the season. The two girls were often paired for personal appearances and
gradually came to stand out from the other :mice" in publicity releases and media
coverage. Besides leading most of the musical numbers for the second year,
Darlene also shared a Talent Round-Up Day with her three sisters and had a show
to herself with singing and celebrity impersonations in An Evening With
Darlene.
As soon as the serial ended, she
worked for two months in the Disneyland Circus.
She was the leading female singer
and starred in the serial Corky and White Shadow during the first season. In
the third season, she appeared in the serial, The New Adventures of Spin and
Marty, with Tim Considine and David Stollery.
Gillespie made many recordings
under the various Disney labels, including an album of 1950s rock and roll
standards called Darlene of the Teens (1957). She recorded albums from Disney
animated films in which she not only sang but narrated the stories as well,
such as Alice in Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty.
There is some scandal surrounding her - she was arrested in 2005 in bad check writing scheme. the charges were later dropped. Several current Disney legends do have some scandal attached to their name (Johnny Depp for example).
One of the most popular and enduring rides at the Disney Parks is Space Mountain, the first roller coaster to be ridden inside and in the dark - Space Mountain at Disneyland was
designed by Bill Watkins of Walt Disney Imagineering. This includes the tubular steel
track design. The track layout was different from
that in Florida because of space limitations in the California park. He was also involved in the design of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride.
Inside of Space Mountain during construction
According to Wikipedia - "Space Mountain at Disneyland was
designed by Bill Watkins of Walt Disney Imagineering, including a tubular steel
track design awarded U.S. Patent 4,029,019."
Watkins wrote an article for Mouseplanet about the design of Space Mountain - here is a a paragraph from that article: "Disneyland's Space Mountain
opened on May 28, 1977 and was reproduced at Tokyo and, recently, Hong Kong.
During those same years and later (1969 to 1986), we also designed the Big
Thunder Railway (working title) rides at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Tokyo
Disneyland, and Euro Disneyland using the same principles and techniques. The
Disneyland Space Mountain was recently reopened with a new, but identical,
track. 171 million people had ridden on the old track, a total of more than 8
million miles."
Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise are tied at number 53 for my choice as Disney Legends. The two often worked together as animators and directors for Walt Disney Studios. I hold them in high esteem as directors of Beauty and The Beast - perhaps the greatest animated film of all time.
Trousdale's work with Disney includes animation in the movies The Black Cauldron, Oliver and Company, The Rescuers Down Under, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and The Prince and the Pauper. He worked as a writer for The Lion King and Atlantis: Milo's Return and was also a director for The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He was a special effects contributor to the live action movie My Science Project. He even ventured in the parks as the pre-show director for the now defunct Epcot attraction Cranium Command. He moved to Dreamworks Studios in 2003.
Wise also directed Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He worked as an animator on Disney films such as The Great Mouse Detective, The Brave Little Toaster, Sport Goofy in Soccermania, Oliver and Company, The Rescuers Down Under, The Prince and the Pauper and The Lion King. He helped as a writer for Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He was also the executive producer of Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. He was a voice actor and sequence director for the Epcot attraction Cranium Command. most recently he was the executive producer for Disney's Oceans and as a creative consultant for Chimpanzee.
Eric Goldberg is a Disney animator and director and has worked on such projects as Aladdin, Frozen and Wreck it Ralph. He has also animated extensively for Warner Brothers.
Below is his partial Disney filmography.
1992 Aladdin Supervising Animator: Genie
1995 Pocahontas Director
1998 Hercules Supervising Animator: Philoctetes
1999 Fantasia 2000 Supervising Animator: Duke/Yo Yo Flamingo
2000 Rhapsody in Blue Animator
2000 Emperor's New Groove Animator
2005 Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years Animator
2006 Fox and the Hound 2 Animator
2009 The Princess
and the Frog Supervising
Animator: Louis
2011 Winnie the
Pooh Supervising Animator:
Rabbit/The Backson
2012 Paperman Animator
2012 Wreck-It
Ralph Animator: King Candy/ Sour Bill
2013 Get A Horse! Supervising Animator: Pete/Hay Wagon Band
Ralph Wright is my 50th pick to receive the Disney Legend honor. He was a Disney animator and storyboard writer who is
best known for providing the gloomy, sullen voice of Eeyore from the popular
Winnie-the-Pooh franchise. Wright came to the studio circa 1940 and became well
known throughout the ensuing decades for his endearingly gloomy and sullen
personality traits as well as his bass voice. He turned out to be a natural
model for Eeyore when the studio began development on Winnie the Pooh and the
Honey Tree.
He, along with his fellow Disney contemporaries, was a
pioneer in the use of "gags" within cartoons, often acted out in
front of the "story board," a bulletin board pinned with sequential
sketches of the cartoon's scenes. This technique still in use today in most
major animation studios. Information taken from his Wikipedia page.
Disney Filmography
Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore 1983 - voice: Eeyore
(final role)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - 1977 - story,
voice: Eeyore, performer: "Hip Hip Pooh-ray!"
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! - 1974 - story, Eeyore does
not appear
Rogue's Rock - 1974 - The Wonderful World of Disney - writer
The City Fox - 1972 - The Wonderful World of Disney -
contributing writer
Bedknobs and Broomsticks - 1971 - animation story
The Aristocats 1970 - writer/storyboard team
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) - story, voice:
Eeyore
The Jungle Book 1967 - writer/storyboard team, voice: Gloomy
elephant (uncredited)
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree 1966 - story, voice:
Eeyore
Aquamania 1961 - story
Nikki, Wild Dog of the North - 1961 - writer/storyboard team
Sleeping Beauty - 1959 - additional story
Perri - 1957 - Director, writer, storyboard team
Lady and the Tramp - 1955 - writer/storyboard team
