OLLIE JOHNSTON

'Oliver Martin Johnston, Jr.' (born October 31,1912) is a pioneer in the field of motion picture animation. He was one of Disney's Nine Old Men, and the last living member. His work was recognized with the National Medal of Arts in 2005.
He was a directing animator at Walt Disney Studios from 1935-1978. He contributed to many films including ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Bambi'' and ''Pinocchio.'' His last full work for Disney came with ''The Rescuers'', which was the last film of the second golden age of Disney animation that had begun in 1950 with ''Cinderella''. In ''The Rescuers'', he was caricatured as one of the film's characters, the cat Rufus.

Johnston co-authored, with Frank Thomas, the classic reference book ''The Illusion Of Life''. This book helped preserve the knowledge of the techniques that were developed at the studio.
The partnership of Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas is fondly presented in the documentary "Frank and Ollie", produced by Theodore Thomas, Frank's son.

Contents

Personal life

Characters and scenes animated by Johnston

Other books

External links

Personal life

Born in Palo Alto, California, Johnston attended Stanford University- where he worked on campus humor magazine the Stanford Chaparral with fellow future animator Frank Thomas - then went on to the University of California, Berkeley, and Chouinard Art Institute.
Ollie married a fellow Disney employee, Ink and Paint artist Marie Worthey, in 1943. Marie Johnston died May 20, 2005.
Ollie's lifelong hobby was live steam trains. Starting in 1949, he built a 1" scale backyard railroad, with three 1/12th scale locomotives, now owned by his sons. This railroad was one of the inspirations for Walt Disney to build his own backyard railroad, the Carolwood Pacific Railroad, which again inspired the building of the railroad in Disneyland.
In the 1960s Ollie acquired and restored a full-size narrow-gauge Porter steam locomotive, which he named the "Marie E." In 2005 it ran during a private night event on the Disneyland Railroad. This engine was sold to John Lasseter (of Pixar Studios fame). The engine is fully operational and ran recently at the Santa Maragrita Ranch in May of 2007.
On November 10, 2005, Ollie Johnston was among the recipients of the prestigious National Medal of Arts, presented by President George W. Bush in an Oval Office ceremony.

Characters and scenes animated by Johnston

★ ''Pinocchio'': Pinocchio talking to Blue Fairy, telling a lie

★ ''Fantasia'': The Pastoral Symphony

★ ''Bambi'': Baby Bambi; older Bambi meets neighborhood; Thumper recites poetry on the meadow; meets Stag

★ ''The Three Caballeros'': The Flying Gauchito

★ ''Make Mine Music'': Casey At The Bat, Peter And The Wolf

★ ''Melody Time'': Little Toot, Johnny Appleseed

★ ''The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad'': The District Attorney, Ichabod Crane

★ ''Cinderella'': Drizella and Anastasia

★ ''Alice in Wonderland'': The King of Hearts

★ ''Peter Pan'': Mr. Smee

★ ''Lady And The Tramp'': Lady, Jock, Trusty

★ ''Sleeping Beauty'': Flora, Fauna, Merryweather

★ ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'': Pongo, Perdita, Nanny Cook, Puppies

★ ''The Sword in the Stone'': Merlin, Wart, Archimedes, Laughing Owl

★ ''Mary Poppins'': Waiter Penguins

★ ''The Jungle Book'': Baloo, Mowgli, The Girl

★ ''The Aristocats'': Cats and geese, Amelia, Abigail, Uncle Waldo

★ ''Robin Hood'': Sir Hiss, Prince John

★ ''The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh'': Rabbit, Kanga, Roo

★ ''The Rescuers'': Orville, Bernard, Bianca, Rufus, Penny

Other books

★ ''Too Funny for Words: Disney's Greatest Sight Gags'' (ISBN 0-89659-747-4)

★ ''Walt Disney's Bambi—the Story and the Film'' (ISBN 1-55670-160-8)

★ ''The Disney Villain'' (ISBN 1-56282-792-8)

External links

★ Frank and Ollie's official site

★

★ Disney Legends

★ Ollie's backyard railroad