Born: Oliver Martin Johnston Jr.
Birthday: October 31, 1912
Location: Palo Alto, CA, U.S.
Alma mater: Chouinard Art Institute
Occupation: Animator, Director
Years active: 1934–1981
Died: April 14, 2008

Ollie Johnston was born in Palo Alto, California and attended Stanford University. There, he worked on the humorous campus magazine, The Stanford Chaparral alongside fellow artist and future animator Frank Thomas. Frank and Ollie began a lifelong friendship at the University. During his senior year at Stanford, Johnston transferred to the Chouinard Art Institute to study under famed illustrator, Pruett Carter.

Ollie was soon approached by Disney in 1935 and, after only a single week’s training, he was hired by the Walt Disney Studio as an in-betweener for the animated short Mickey’s Garden. He also contributed to The Tortoise and the Hare, which earned an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons). He was promoted to apprentice animator a year later, working under Fred Moore on cartoon shorts like Pluto’s Judgment Day and Mickey’s Rival.

Johnston’s first job as an animator was for Disney’s first feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs followed by his debut as a supervising animator on Pinocchio. One of his scenes included when Pinocchio’s nose keeps growing as he lies to the Blue Fairy.

After the success of Pinocchio, Ollie worked on almost every Disney animated classics that followed, including the centaurettes in Fantasia, and the “eating greens” recitation by Thumper in 1942’s Bambi. The following year, Ollie married Disney ink and paint artist Marie Worthey.

Johnston was promoted to directing animator for Song of the South, where he animated Br’er Rabbit. He also frequently partnered with his longtime friend, Thomas to create characters such like Ichabod Crane and the District Attorney in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

Outside of work, Johnston’s hobby was live steam trains. In 1949, he built a miniature backyard railroad with three 1:12th scale locomotives at his home. Ollie’s railroad was one of Walt Disney’s inspirations to build his own backyard railroad and the Disneyland amusement park railroad in Anaheim, California.

His directing duties went on to include the Stepsisters in Cinderella, Mr. Smee in Peter Pan, and the trio of fairies in Sleeping Beauty. He worked on many of the 101 Dalmatians, and Mowgli and Baloo’s Bear Necessities musical number in The Jungle Book. Johnston collaborated again with Frank Thomas on character creation for both Prince John and Sir Hiss in Robin Hood and Orville the albatross in The Rescuers. The cat Rufus from The Rescuers was a caricature of Johnston himself.

Upon completion of some early character development and animation for The Fox and the Hound, Ollie Johnston officially retired in 1978 to focus on writing, lecturing and consulting after 43 years with the Studio.

Ollie continued to support the history and craft of animation even in retirement. He and Frank Thomas co-authored Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life; a book about traditional hand-drawn Disney character animation. It presents the Disney approach to animation utilizing the 12 basic principles of animation.

Ollie’s final contribution to an animated film was voicing a character for Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles. He and his longtime friend and colleague Frank Thomas voiced and were caricatured as two old men similarly to their earlier voice work and caricatured selves as the train engineers in The Iron Giant.

Johnston was a recipient of the National Medal of Arts on November 10, 2005, presented in an Oval Office ceremony by President George W. Bush.

When Ollie Johnston passed away in 2008, at the age of 95, he was the last of Disney’s Nine Old Men.