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Welcome to the second of nine parts focusing on Walt’s “Nine Old Men.” This week: Ollie Johnston.

Oliver Martin Johnston, Jr, (aka Ollie) Johnston was born in Palo Alto, California, on October 31, 1912. His elementary school was located on Stanford University’s campus (where his father was a professor of romance languages). Ollie returned to Stanford (where he worked on the Stanford Chaparral-an on-campus humor magazine-with future fellow animator Frank Thomas) after graduating from Palo Alto High School, while also spending his collegiate years at the University of California, Berkely, and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles.

In January of 1935, Ollie signed on to work as an apprentice animator at Walt Disney Studios. During his early years, he worked on “Mickey’s Garden” as well as “The Tortise and the Hare,” among others.  Just five years after signing on at the Studio, Johnston became the directing animator on Pinocchio. While at the Studios, Ollie met his soul mate in the form of Ink and Paint artist Marie Worthey. He married her in 1943. 

When animating, Ollie tried to put a feeling of warmth and heartfelt emotion into the characters. Memorable examples include Baloo and Mowgli in The Jungle Book; Sir Hiss and Prince John in Robin Hood; Mr. Smee in Peter Pan; Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty; and Thumper in Bambi. He also worked on over 19 other films including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Song of the South, Sleeping Beauty, Alice in Wonderland, Cinderella, and Lady and the Tramp. Johnston’s last film at the Walt Disney Studios was The Rescuers. 

Outside of animating, Ollie loved to work on model trains. In fact, it was Johnston that stirred Walt’s passion for trains. In 1949, Johnston built a one-inch scale railroad with three one-twelth scale train engines. During the 1960s, his obsession progressed and Ollie restored a full-size narrow-gauge Porter steam train, which he named the “Marie E.” It was eventually sold to John Lasseter (yes, the same that now runs WDAS) and is still fully operational.

In 1978, after 43 years of working at WDS, Ollie Johnston retired from animating. He spent his free time working on his train as well as co-authoring four books with friend and fellow animator Frank Thomas: Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, Too Funny For Words, Walt Disney’s Bambi: The Story and the Film, and The Disney Villain. Johnston and Thomas were also the subject of Frank and Ollie, a 1995 documentary that looked into their friendship.

Brad Bird paid tribute to the animator in the 1999 film The Iron Giant where Ollie was portrayed as a train engineer. 

In 1989, Johnston was awarded with the Disney Legends award. In 2005, President George W. Bush awarded Ollie with the National Medal of Arts award for all of his work in animation.