Who were Disney's Nine Old Men? I run down the careers of the influential animators. This installment honours Ollie Johnston (October 31, 1912 - April 14, 2008).

No group of animators have been more influential to the art of animated film than Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men." Rising through the ranks at Disney Studios, these artists not only animated classics like Peter Pan, Pinocchio, and Fantasia, but set an artistic standard that has rarely been equalled.

Ollie Johnston (October 31, 1912 - April 14, 2008) was a character animator, best known for designing Mr. Smee in Peter Pan, the ugly stepsisters in Cinderella, and nearly half of The Jungle Book.

Ollie Johnston: Legendary Character Animator

Oliver Martin Johnston Jr. was born in Palo Alto, California. After graduating high school, he attended Stanford University where he met his lifelong friend Frank Thomas. After graduating from Stanford, Johnston studied at the University of California, Berkeley and Chouinard Art Institute.

In 1935, Thomas encouraged Johnston to join him at Disney, where Thomas had been working for a year. Johnston started as an in-betweener on Mickey Mouse shorts, and an assistant animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Johnston started getting onscreen credits on 1940's Pinocchio. He also oversaw the "Pastoral Symphony" sequence in Fantasia. Johnston contributed to virtually every Disney animated film over the next 30 years, working closely with Frank Thomas. The two were so intertwined that people called them "Frank & Ollie," treating them “like they were one person,” said Glen Keane.

In 1995, director Theodore Thomas (Frank's son) explored that relationship in his charming documentary Frank and Ollie.

One of Johnston's gifts was his ability to convey a sequence with the least number of lines. Such economy of motion allowed him to craft sequences at great speed, and demonstrated a Zen approach to animation.

His second, and greatest, asset was how he brought out the emotions in characters, whether it was Thumper's recitation of about "eating greens" in Bambi, Pinocchio's shock when his lies caused his nose to grow, or Pongo giving Perdita a comforting lick in 101 Dalmations. Johnston's unheralded acting abilities allowed him to give those films heart as well as visual flair.

“I always thought that Ollie Johnston so immersed himself into the characters he animated, that whenever you watched Bambi, Pinocchio, Smee or Rufus the cat, you saw Ollie on the screen," said animator Andreas Deja in Johnston's official obituary. "‘Don’t animate drawings, animate feelings,’ he would say."

One of Johnston's most famous sequences was the final scene in The Jungle Book, where a little girl seduces Mowgli into the Man village. Despite thinking it was "a terrible idea," Johnston's dead-on portrayal of pre-teen infatuation gave the sequence a bittersweet tone, as an entranced Mowgli leaves his friends despite his best intentions.

The Illusion of Life: Johnston's Influence

After his 1978 retirement, Johnston co-wrote, with Thomas, The Illusion of Life, the animator's bible. Johnston and Thomas also collaborated on three more books: Too Funny For Words, Bambi: The Story And The Film, and The Disney Villain.

When Walt Disney Studios sponsored an animation program at Cal Arts, Johnston joined the faculty. Thousands jumped at the chance to learn from an animation legend, including filmmakers Tim Burton, Brad Bird, Glen Keane and John Lasseter..

“Ollie Johnston was the kind of teacher who made you believe in yourself through his genuine encouragement and patient guidance," observed animator/director Glen Keane (Rapunzel) in Disney's official obituary.

"Ollie was a great teacher and mentor to all of us," added Disney/Pixar creative head/director John Lasseter (Toy Story). "His door at the Studio was always open . . . and I can’t imagine what animation would be like today without him . . . He taught me to always be aware of what a character is thinking, and we continue to make sure that every character we create . . . has a thought process and emotion that makes them come alive."

Animated Tributes

Disney animators gave Johnston a tribute in his last film, 1977's The Rescuers, when they based the character of Rufus the cat on him.

Brad Bird (Ratatouille) honoured his old teacher in two films. In his 1999 flick The Iron Giant, Ollie voiced the role of an engineer (a nod to Johnston's lifelong love of trains). In Bird's 2004 film, The Incredibles, Johnston and Thomas voiced two old men who appeared right after the climactic battle between the superhero family and a villainous robot. It was a fitting tribute to Bird's mentor.

Ollie Johnston died on April 14th of natural causes. He was 95.

Next up: Milt Kahl, who created Disney villains like The Jungle Book's Shere Kahn and The Rescuers' Madame Medusa.

(Thanks to Animated News and IMDb for information for this article)