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Welcome to the 5th of 9 posts featuring Walt Disney’s Nine Old Men. Our previous reports include Les Clark, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, and Wolfgang Reitherman. This week, we’ll focus on John Lounsbery.

Contents:

Life Before the Studios
Life At the Studios
Life After the Studios

Life Before the Studios:
John Lounsbery was born in Cincinatti, Ohio, on March 9, 1911. His family moved to Colorado where he graduated from East Denver High School and continued his education at the Art Institute of Denver. When he graduated from the Art Institute, Lounsbery moved to LA where he took work as a freelancing artist while also taking some classes from the Art Center School of Design. When one of his instructors noticed John’s talent, she sugested that he interview at the Walt Disney Studios. They hired him on July 2, 1935. 

Life At the Studios:
Lounsbery began his career at Disney as an assistant animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as well as animating several Pluto shorts. His other works include, in chronological order: Dumbo, Song of the South, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Ben and Me, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, Goliath II, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, Robin Hood) In the 1970s, Lounsbery was promoted to the position of director for Winnie the Pooh serials and, his last work, The Rescuers. 

Life After the Studios:
On February 13, 1976 (while he was working on The Rescuers), John Lounsbery died from complications during surgery. He was named a Disney Legend in 1989.