Disney's Nine Old Men: Les Clark
Animtor Helped Design Mickey Mouse, Fantasia's Sorcerer's Apprentice
Who were Disney's Nine Old Men? I run down the careers of the influential animators. This installment honours Les Clark (November 17, 1907 - September 12, 1979)
With the death of Ollie Johnston on April 14th, the last of Walt Disney's Nine Old Men passed to the Great Animation Studio in the sky.
The "Nine Old Men" were Walt Disney's elite animators. These were the best of the best, the ones who took on the most important jobs at the studio. From the 1920's until the 1970's, they worked on countless projects, including the Silly Symphonies, every feature-length film from Snow White to Robin Hood, and thousands of shorts starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other members of the Disney menagerie.
Although Walt had a well-deserved reputation as a control freak, he gave the Nine Old Men plenty of space. Whether by accident or by design, Walt had hired the right people and he was smart enough to stay out of their way.
Many of them became directors and talent scouts for the Mouse House, and some of them passed on their knowledge through books and teaching at Cal Arts. While the phrase "Nine Old Men" was a joke (they were only in their 30's or 40's when they were named), this group of animators would literally write the book on cartoons, developing the 12 Principles of Animation, which every animator uses today.
Les Clark joined Disney from high school
Les Clark (November 17, 1907 - September 12, 1979) was the first of the Nine Old Men to join Disney. He arrived at a crucial time: the Silly Symphonies and the live-action/animated Alice Comedies were beginning to wind down and Walt was trying to find a new character to generate shorts (and income) for the struggling company. Clark assisted original animator Ube Iwerks in creating Disney's biggest star: Mickey Mouse.
Unlike most of the other Nine Old Men, Les Clark had no art background but got where he was by determination and hard work. Walt first met him in 1925, when he complimented the sixteen-year-old on some lettering he had done on a mirror at the candy store where Clark worked.
Two years later, when he was about to graduate from Venice High School, Clark applied for a job at Disney studios. Impressed with his "swift, deft" drawings, Walt hired Clark on the spot but warned him that the job might only be temporary.
After working the animation cameras for six months, Clark apprenticed under Iwerks, who was developing Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. At the time, Iwerks was the studio's top animator, known for cranking out clever images at unbelievable speeds. Iwerks' versatility and cartoony style influenced Les Clark, but he eventually surpassed his mentor as a personality animator.
Unfortunately, Disney lost Oswald to Universal, and was forced to quickly come up with a new character to save his company. Iwerks obliged by creating something that looked very similar to Oswald: Mickey Mouse.
Les Clark: Mickey Mouse specialist
Clark was Iwerks' in-betweener (drawing the images between Iwerks' drawings to create the ilusion of movement) on the 1928 short Steamboat Willie. Although it was the third cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse, it was the one that made him a star. Steamboat Willie's impact was considerable: in 1994, it was voted #13 of the Greatest Cartoons of All Time.
Les Clark graduated to animation, producing the "Xylophone" sequence in the Silly Symphonies' "Skeleton Dance" but was first credited on "The Barn Dance," released that same year.
After Iwerks left Disney in 1930, Clark took over on Mickey Mouse and was responsible for developing the character's classic look. Whenever one sees Mickey Mouse, one sees Les Clark's art. The most famous example of his work was in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" sequence in Fantasia (1940).
Clark became a Directing Animator for 1947's Fun & Fancy Free. He worked on the classic short "Mickey and the Beanstalk," which cast Mickey in the famous fairy tale.
In 1955, he made his directorial debut with the Jiminy Cricket-hosted "documentary," You, the Human Animal. Clark would go on to direct many other projects, including 1958's Paul Bunyan, 1965's Donald's Fire Survival Plan and 1973's Man, Monsters and Mysteries.
On September 30, 1975, Les Clark officially retired from the Walt Disney Company, although his work appeared in 1980's Mickey Mouse Disco and Fantasia 2000. He was the longest continuously employed worker at Walt Disney. He died of cancer on September 12, 1979.
Next up: Marc Davis, creator of Bambi, Maleficient and Cruella De Vil.
(With thanks to Wikipedia, IMDb and John Canemaker's 2001 book Walt Disney's Nine Old Men and the Art of Animation)
