Born: Howard E. Swift
Birthday: August 29, 1912
Location: AR, U.S.
Occupation: Animator, Director, Writer
Years active: 1938-1983
Died: January 13, 1983
Howard Swift was a straight-ahead animator who got his start at Disney in 1938. With no formal art training, he learned the craft of animation when he was assigned to work under Norm Fergusen.
Howard is best known for animating some unforgettably surreal scenes like the dancing ostriches in Fantasia’s the “Dance of the Hours” and the “Pink Elephants on Parade” sequence of Dumbo. Examples of the latter include the ice skating elephants, the elephants running into each other, the elephant with the lightning bolt, the camel elephant, and the monster made up of elephant faces.
When the Disney animator’s strike 1941 happened, Howard joined the stikers on the picket line. When the strike ended, Swift left the studio and worked in the Air Force animation unit until the war’s end, when Frank Tashlin brought him over to Screen Gems as a director.
Howard would move on to become a director at Hanna-Barbera from 1966-81 before forming his own business venture, Swift-Chaplin Productions.
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