Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men are legends and influencers of Disney history! They were key animators at the Walt Disney studios who all began their careers during the Golden Age of animation. They created beloved heroes, graceful princesses, memorable sidekicks, and wicked villains. Nicknamed after Franklin D. Roosevelts Nine Old Men of the Supreme Court, these talented men were all honoured with the title of Disney Legend in 1989, alongside Up Iwerks.
Looking closer at each of the Nine Old Men, there are actually only three freature films which they all served as directing animators on: Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan, though they all worked for Disney on various projects for multiple decades.
Les Clark
Les Clark was the first of the Nine Old Men to be hired at the Walt Disney Studios in 1927. In high school, he worked at a candy shop near the studios and Walt complimented Les on the artwork he did on the menu. After graduating from high school, he approached Walt for a job and Walt asked to see some of his drawings. Being impressed with the work, Walt offered the high school graduate a temporary job which turned into Les working under Ub Iwerks on the Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts. Les even did some animation for Steamboat Willie. Les did quite a bit of animation for various Mickey Mouse projects including the Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment in Fantasia. He was a directing animator for characters such as Cinderella, Alice, and Tinker Bell. Later in his career, Les moved on to directing instead of animating. He was one of the sequence directors for Sleeping Beauty in 1959 and then directed many of Disney’s educational short films throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He retired in 1975.
There is an Easter egg reference to Les in The Nifty Nineties Mickey Mouse short from 1941. A sign in the background reads “After the show, stop at Clark’s Confectionary.”
Wolfgang Reitherman
Wolfgang Reitherman, fondly known as Woolie, started at the Walt Disney Studios in 1933. He started working on the Silly Symphony, Mickey Mouse, and Goofy cartoon shorts. He worked on the Magic Mirror in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Woolie created many climatic scenes for various Disney animated films including the Monstro the whale chase in Pinocchio, the dinosaur fight in The Rite of Spring in Fantasia, and the Headless Horseman chase in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. He worked on characters such as Jaq and Gus, the White Rabbit, and Tick-Tock Croc.
Beginning in the mid 1950s, Woolie moved onto a directing role instead of animating for many Disney films. He directed both cartoon shorts and feature films. After Walt Disney passed away in 1966, Woolie took over as producer for the animation department and produced every animated film from The Aristocats to The Fox and the Hound, retiring shortly afterward.
All three of Woolie’s sons did some voice work for Disney. His son Bruce played Christopher Robin in Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree and Mowgli in The Jungle Book. Both his sons Richard and Robert voiced Wart in The Sword in the Stone.
Eric Larson
Eric Larson was hired at the Walt Disney Studios in 1933. He started as an assistant animator on various shorts before earning the title of animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Soon he was a directing animator on Disney’s second feature film Pinocchio. He was the supervising animator for The Pastoral Symphony segment in Fantasia. With Marc and Les he worked on Cinderella and with John Lounsbery he created the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. Eric was lead animator on Peg in Lady and the Tramp and he created the “You Can Fly, You Can Fly, You Can Fly” scene in Peter Pan. He did a lot of work for the singing animals in “Jolly Holiday” in Mary Poppins and drew on inspiration from growing up on a farm.
Towards the end of his career, Eric started a mentorship program for new and inspiring animators. Many of the famous Disney animators who created the Disney Renaissance were taught and trained by Eric. He was an animation consultant for films such as Mickey’s Christmas Carol and The Great Mouse Detective. He retired in 1986.
Milt Kahl
Milt Kahl was hired at the Walt Disney Studios in 1934 after seeing The Three Little Pigs and falling in love with animation. He started as an animation assistant on various cartoon shorts. He worked on animating the woodland creatures in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs before moving on to be a directing animator on the titular character of Pinocchio after senior animator Fred Moore saw Milt’s drawings of the little wooden puppet. Milt worked on many villains and sidekicks such as Madam Mim, Shere Khan, Kaa, Madame Medusa, and Mr. Snoops. He based the image of Mr. Snoops on Disney author and historian John Culhane. Milt also created the very lovable Tigger in the original Winnie the Pooh shorts.
Milt became the mentor to a young animator named Brad Bird before his retirement in 1976.
Ward Kimball
Ward Kimball joined the Studios in 1934. Some of the most popular Disney characters he worked on were Jiminy Cricket, Lucifer, the Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat, and the Lost Boys in Peter Pan. He also directed some Disneyland TV episodes as well as the shorts Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom and It’s Tough to be a Bird.
Ward really bonded with Walt over their love of trains. The No. 5 Disneyland Railroad Steam Engine was even named the Ward Kimball in 2006 and there is a silhouette of Jiminy Cricket on the smokestack. Ward started a Dixieland jazz band with other members of the Disney Studios called Firehouse Five plus Two. This band has been caricatured in the Goofy cartoon How to Dance and in The Princess and the Frog were it is called the Firefly Five plus Lou. Some songs of theirs can still be heard aboard the Mark Twain. Ward’s likeness also has a cameo in the Ferdinand the Bull short of 1938.
Ward was quite the jokester and gave his hand prints at the Disney Studios Legends Plaza an extra finger print so his hands are the only ones with eleven fingers. He retired in 1973, but still served as a consultant on special projects.
Frank Thomas
Starting at the Walt Disney Studios in 1934, Frank Thomas got his start working on various cartoon shorts. He soon worked on animated feature films and created iconic scenes such as the puppet show in Pinocchio, the ice skating scene in Bambi, and the famous spaghetti kiss in Lady and the Tramp. Frank was a master at creating villains and was the directing animator for Lady Tremaine, the Queen of Hearts, and Captain Hook. He briefly left the studios during World War II to serve in the Air Force. During this time he still kept up his artwork by working on animated training videos with the First Motion Picture Unit of the Air Force.
Frank is well known for his close friendship with fellow Nine Old Men member Ollie Johnston. Together they appear in The Incredibles as a cameo with the lines “See that! That’s the way to do it. That’s old school” and “No school like the old school.” Frank has another cameo in The Princess and the Frog as the piano player in Firefly Five plus Lou.
Frank retired in 1978. His son Ted made a documentary film called Frank and Ollie about their careers at Disney in 1995.
Ollie Johnston
Ollie Johnston joined the Walt Disney Studios in 1935 as an inbetweener for the Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts. He went on to be the directing animator for almost 20 animated feature films! Ollie would often work on character pairs at the same time such as Anastasia and Drizella Tremaine, Jock and Trusty, Pongo and Perdita, Baloo and Mowgli, and Sir Hiss and Prince John. He also worked on the lead role of Alice as well as the King of Hearts. In Peter Pan he created the bumbling Mr. Smee. Ollie’s likeness was used for Rufus the cat in The Rescuers.
Working with Frank, together they created the penguin waiters in Mary Poppins and the three good fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty.
After his retirement in 1978, Ollie and Frank co-authored Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life which is an in-depth look at the twelve basic principles of animation. They also wrote The Disney Villain, Too Funny for Words, and Bambi: The Story and the Film.
Marc Davis
Known as Walt’s Renaissance Man, Marc Davis started at the Walt Disney Studios in 1935. He began by doing clean up animation on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He went on to be the lead animator on many of the Disney leading ladies. Along with Les, Marc created Cinderella, Alice, and Tinker Bell. He was also the directing animator on Aurora, Maleficent, and Cruella de Vil.
With the opening of Disneyland in 1955, Marc transitioned into becoming an Imagineer for WED Enterprises. He was a key developer in classic attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, and the Country Bear Jamboree. He also worked on all four attractions for the 1964 / 1965 New York World’s Fair. Marc retired in 1978, but he still worked as a consultant for the development of Epcot and Tokyo Disneyland.
Marc’s wife Alice Davis is a Disney Legend in her own right. She was a costume designer for Disney and was named a Disney Legend in 2004. She started by creating costumes for the live action models of Sleeping Beauty and then Walt hired Alice to work on a few live action films and TV shows. Alice then moved on to attractions and designed all of the costumes for the dolls in It’s a Small World and for the audio animatronics in Pirates of the Caribbean.
John Lounsbery
John Lounsbery started working for the studios in 1935 as an animation assistant on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. John also worked on a number of the early Pluto cartoon shorts. He went on to work on numerous characters during his career as an animator including J. Worthington Foulfellow and Gideon, Lucifer and Bruno, Cheshire Cat, The Darling Family, Tony and Joe, King Stefan and King Hubert, and the elephant brigade in The Jungle Book. He was the directing animator for the Dance of the Hours segment in Fantasia and one of his favourite characters was said to have been Ben Ali Gator. He even did some directing such as being a co-director on The Rescuers and directing Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.
John is said to be one of the only animators who preferred to draw with a carpenter’s pencil instead of a drawing pencil. He also loved the Stretch and Squash animating techniques which can be seen in many of his characters as most of them are quite comical.
John was the only one of the Nine Old Men to have passed away while he was still working at the Walt Disney Studios.
Each of Disney’s Nine Old Men brought characters and films to life in their own way and will always be remembered as masters of the art.
Which character created by one of the Nine Old Men is your favourite?
Such great history! I can’t imagine how exciting it must have been back then!