Legendary Disney animator dies at 95 (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Ollie Johnston, the last of the "Nine Old Men" who animated "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Fantasia," "Bambi" and other classic Walt Disney films, died Monday. He was 95.

Johnston died of natural causes at a long-term care facility in Sequim, Washington, Walt Disney Studios Vice President Howard Green said Tuesday.

"Ollie was part of an amazing generation of artists, one of the real pioneers of our art, one of the major participants in the blossoming of animation into the art form we know today," Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt Disney and director emeritus of the Walt Disney Co., said in a statement.

Walt Disney lightheartedly dubbed his team of crack animators his "Nine Old Men," borrowing the phrase from President Franklin D. Roosevelt's description of the U.S. Supreme Court's members, who had angered the president by quashing many of his Depression-era New Deal programs.

Although most of Disney's men were in their 20s at the time, the name stuck with them for the rest of their lives.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/15/obit.johnston.ap/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney's_Nine_Old_Men

[Lorien]

1. Very sad. I knew Ollie, Frank, Ward Kimball and Marc Davis

when I was just starting out in the animation department at Disney. They were still giving us lectures back then. It's so sad to see that era finally come to an end. :cry:

Frank and Ollie (the shorter of the two) portrayed in "The Incredibles".

[The Sushi Bandit]

2. As a former Imagineer I am most saddened by Ollie's passing.

He will be truly be missed!!

I was there for his induction as a Disney Legend and had the pleasure to shake his hand!



more disney ledgends can be found at: http://www.mouseclubhouse.com/interviews/index.htm