Disney Legend Ollie Johnston (1912-2008)

Tuesday, April 15, 2008
By: Ryan Ball

Ollie Johnston, the last surviving member of Disney’s legendary “Nine Old Men” of animation, has passed away at the age of 96. The animator leaves behind a remarkable body of work going back to the 1935 short Mickey's Garden, on which he served as an in-between artist. In addition to his artistic acumen and ability to create multi-dimensional characters in 2D, he will be remembered for his lifelong friendship fellow Disney animator Frank Thomas. The two met in school at Stanford and remained virtually inseparable until Thomas’ death in 2004.

Thomas once said of his friend, “Ollie was the only one of the Studio animators who was sensitive to character relationships and how they affected story. Back then cartoon characters seldom touched unless they hit each other. But one day Ollie said, ‘You know, the act of two people holding hands communicates in a powerful way.’ And he was right. His warmth made a difference in so many of our characters.” Memorable relationships animated by Johnston include Baloo and Mowgli (The Jungle Book) Thumper and Bambi and Lady and the Tramp.

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 including such time-honored classics as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Song of the South, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty.

Even after his retirement in 1978, Johnston remained involved with the studio, lending his talents as supervising animator on 1981’s The Fox and the Hound. He also co-authored four books with Thomas, including Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, Too Funny For Words,Walt Disney's Bambi: The Story and the Film and The Disney Villain. The pair was the subject of a 1995 documentary titled Frank and Ollie, and thier wisdom on art and animation is still being shared onliine at www.frankandollie.com.

Johnston’s contributions to the art form didn’t stop at animating. He was caricatured as “Rufus the Cat” in 1977’s The Rescuers, and Oscar-winning director Brad Bird convinced him to lend his voice to characters in his 1999 Warner Bros. feature The Iron Giant and the 2004 Disney/Pixar blockbuster The Incredibles. Johnston had two sons with wife Marie, who passed away in 2005.

Reader Comments

• Mike Peraza : Conceptual Designer :

  Wednesday, April 16, 2008

  I was lucky enough to meet Ollie (and Frank) back in 1973 when I first came out to Cal Arts for the summer and then again when I was fortunate enough to get a job at Disney animation in the late 1970s.
  
  Ollie like the other Disney veterans never got tired of helping us newbies with our drawings. Teaching us to see the character within before concentrating too much on what was on the outside. I remember running into him regularly downstairs and he never minded my goofy questions while being patient and kind with his answers.
  
  He like Don Griffith, could take your crude attempts at drawing and place a sheet over it and before you knew it, made your mediocre attempt actually look pretty good. You learned a great deal from Ollie and his generation, not just the art of animation, but the heart of animation.

• Suzan Conliff :

  Friday, April 18, 2008

  I was terribly saddened by the passing of Ollie Johnston because I feel that one of the truly great men of our time has gone. With Frank Thomas, Ollie gave so much to the world in the form of entertainment of a marvelous kind. What a great think, to create and share instead of seeking power and to destroy.
  At least they are together again, with Walt.

• Jim Wickey : Writer-Director : Vistavox Entertainment

  Monday, June 23, 2008

  In the 1970\'s my writing/animating partner Steve Johnson and myself wrote letters to Ollie asking advice for dozens of things ranging from character movement to legal. We were so green, but we were young and determined, animating in High School by day, shooting at night. Ollie always answered. Always on Disney letterhead. His letters meant more to us than the advice he offered, which was always brilliant. They represented a contact with Walt Disney Productions, the Nine Old Men, and Walt himself. Frank and Ollie are responsible for building the foundation of this company. My thirteen year old son Ben idolizes Ollie and the brilliant, soulful animation he brought into our lives. Two generations of Wickey\'s, artists and filmmakers, inspired by this wonderful man. What a gift he gave us. We will cherish his memory as long as we live.