Ward Kimball, Academy Award(R)-Winning Disney Animator/Director Who Brought
Life to Mickey Mouse, Jiminy Cricket, The Cheshire Cat, The Mad Hatter And
The Three Caballeros,' Dies at Age 88
BURBANK, Calif., July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Ward Kimball, a pioneering giant of
animation who became one of Walt Disney's trusted "Nine Old Men" and was
closely associated with such memorable characters as Mickey Mouse, Jiminy
Cricket and the Mad Hatter, passed away today (7/8) from natural causes at
Arcadia Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, California. He was 88 years old. The
iconoclastic artist joined the Disney Studios in 1934 and worked there until
his retirement in 1973. He animated or served as directing animator on such
classic films as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Pinocchio," "Fantasia,"
"The Reluctant Dragon," "The Three Caballeros," "Melody Time," "Cinderella,"
"Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Mary Poppins," and "Bedknobs and
Broomsticks." Two of the animated shorts which Kimball created for Disney --
"Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" (1953) and "It's Tough to be a Bird" (1969)
-- won Academy Awards(R). Among his other career highlights, he wrote the
stories for and directed a landmark trio of television shows for the
"Disneyland" show -- "Man in Space," "Man and the Moon," and "Mars and
Beyond" -- which helped to spark interest in space travel....
Life to Mickey Mouse, Jiminy Cricket, The Cheshire Cat, The Mad Hatter And
The Three Caballeros,' Dies at Age 88
BURBANK, Calif., July 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Ward Kimball, a pioneering giant of
animation who became one of Walt Disney's trusted "Nine Old Men" and was
closely associated with such memorable characters as Mickey Mouse, Jiminy
Cricket and the Mad Hatter, passed away today (7/8) from natural causes at
Arcadia Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, California. He was 88 years old. The
iconoclastic artist joined the Disney Studios in 1934 and worked there until
his retirement in 1973. He animated or served as directing animator on such
classic films as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Pinocchio," "Fantasia,"
"The Reluctant Dragon," "The Three Caballeros," "Melody Time," "Cinderella,"
"Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," "Mary Poppins," and "Bedknobs and
Broomsticks." Two of the animated shorts which Kimball created for Disney --
"Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" (1953) and "It's Tough to be a Bird" (1969)
-- won Academy Awards(R). Among his other career highlights, he wrote the
stories for and directed a landmark trio of television shows for the
"Disneyland" show -- "Man in Space," "Man and the Moon," and "Mars and
Beyond" -- which helped to spark interest in space travel....
