Norm Ferguson (animator)

For the ice hockey player, see Norm Ferguson (ice hockey).

Norm Ferguson
Born	William Norman Ferguson (1902-09-02)September 2, 1902 Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Died	November 4, 1957(1957-11-04) (aged 55) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation	Animator
Employer	Walt Disney Animation Studios (1929-1953)
Spouse	Gladys F. (m. 1924) (1 child)

William Norman Ferguson (September 2, 1902 – November 4, 1957) was an animator for Walt Disney Studios and a central contributor to the studio's stylistic development in the 1930s. He is most frequently noted for his contribution to the creation of Pluto, one of the studio's best-known and most enduring characters, and is the artist most closely associated with that character. He is also credited for developing Peg-Leg Pete and the Big Bad Wolf. Ferguson, known at the studio as "Norm" or "Fergy", was the primary animator of the witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first in a long line of great Disney feature villains. He was also a sequence director on the film.

Career

After starting at the studio in 1929 as a cameraman, Ferguson switched to the animation department and rose rapidly, despite a lack of formal art training. His early animation of the dog who would become Pluto drew strong response at the studio and on-screen for giving the character a personality and apparent inner life that was considered a great step forward for the young art form of animation. Animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston paid extensive tribute to Ferguson's work in their 1981 book Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life, calling his famous "flypaper sequence" from the 1934 short Playful Pluto- in which the dog is stuck to a piece of flypaper- a "milestone in personality animation...through it all, his reaction to his predicament and his thoughts of what to try next are shared with the audience. It was the first time a character seemed to be thinking on the screen, and, though it lasted only 65 seconds, it opened the way for animation of real characters with real problems."

He is remembered for having worked "rough" and "loose", in animation terms, with a focus on feeling, action, and the character's personality rather than detail, structure, or formal draftsmanship. Fellow animator Fred Moore is quoted as having said of Ferguson, "He doesn't know that you can't raise the eyebrows above the head circle, so he goes ahead and does it and it gives a great effect." Animator Shamus Culhane remembered Ferguson as having produced a high volume of work- about 18 feet a week as opposed to the more average ten at the Disney Studios at the time. (A "foot" of animation- a measurement based on film footage- is sixteen frames).

Norm Ferguson served as a sequence director or directing animator on many of the classic Walt Disney features films from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 through the 1950s, including Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi, Cinderella, Peter Pan, and Alice in Wonderland.

Ferguson, who later in life suffered from diabetes, left the Disney Studios with his health and career in decline in about 1953. Immediately after a brief, unsuccessful stint with Shamus Culhane Productions, described by Culhane in his 1986 book Talking Animals And Other People, Ferguson died as a result of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California in 1957.

Ferguson posthumously received the industry's Winsor McCay Award in 1987 and was posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend by the studio in 1999, along with fellow animator Hamilton Luske (also posthumous), among others. The two men are the subjects of chapter five in Thomas and Johnston's Disney Animation: The Illusion Of Life, titled Cartoon Comes Of Age- Norm Ferguson and Ham Luske.

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1937	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs	supervising animator
1940	Pinocchio	supervising animator and sequence director	"J. Worthington Foulfellow" and "Gideon"
1940	Fantasia	supervising animator and director	"Dance of the Hours" segment
1941	The Reluctant Dragon	Himself
1941	Dumbo	directing animator and sequence director
1942	Bambi	supervising animator
1942	Saludos Amigos	supervising animator and supervising director	Pedro, El Gaucho Goofy, Aquarela do Brasil
1944	The Three Caballeros	Director and production supervisor
1950	Cinderella	directing animator
1953	Alice in Wonderland	directing animator
1953	Peter Pan	directing animator

Short films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1926	School Days	Animator
1927	Horses, Horses, Horses	Animator
1929	Mickey's Choo-Choo	Animator
1930	Cannibal Capers	Animator
	Frolicking Fish	Animator
	The Gorilla Mystery	Animator
	Arctic Antics	Animator
	Midnight in a Toy Shop	Animator
	Night	Animator
	The Chain Gang	Animator
	Pioneer Days	Animator
	The Fire Fighters	Animator
	Monkey Melodies	Animator
	The Picnic	Animator
	Winter	Animator
	Playful Pan	Animator
1931	Traffic Troubles	Animator
	The Birthday Party	Animator
	Mother Goose Melodies	Animator
	Blue Rhythm	Animator
	The Castaway	Animator
	Birds of a Feather	Animator
	The Moose Hunt	Animator
	The Delivery Boy	Animator
	The Beach Party	Animator
	Mickey Cuts Up	Animator
	Mickey's Orphans	Animator
	The Barnyard Broadcast	Animator
1932	The Whoopee Party	Animator
	Trader Mickey	Animator
	The Duck Hunt	Animator
	Flowers and Trees	Animator
	The Mad Dog	Animator
	Babes in the Woods	Animator
	Mickey's Nightmare	Animator
	King Neptune	Animator
	Bugs in Love	Animator
	The Klondike Kid	Animator
	Santa's Workshop	Animator
	Mickey's Good Deed	Animator
1933	Puppy Love	Animator
	Mickey's Pal Pluto	Animator
	Birds in the Spring	Animator
	The Pet Store	Animator
	Ye Olden Days	Animator
	Father Noah's Ark	Animator
	Three Little Pigs	Animator
	Old King Cole	Animator
1934	Shanghaied	Animator
	The Big Bad Wolf	Animator
	Playful Pluto	Animator
	Gulliver Mickey	Animator
	Orphan's Benefit	Animator
	Mickey's Steam Roller	Animator
1935	Who Killed Cock Robin?	Animator
	The Golden Touch	Animator
	Pluto's Judgement Day	Animator
	On Ice	Animator
1936	Mother Pluto	Animator
	Moving Day	Animator
	Alpine Climbers	Animator
	Mickey's Polo Team	Animator
	Mickey's Grand Opera	Animator
	Donald and Pluto	Animator
	Three Little Wolves	Animator
	Mickey's Elephant	Animator
1937	Pluto's Quin-puplets	Animator
	Moose Hunters	Animator
1938	The Fox Hunt	Animator
1939	The Practical Pig	Animator
	The Pointer	Animator
	Beach Picnic	Animator
	Society Dog Show	Animator
	Officer Duck	Animator
	Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp	Animation director
1940	Bone Trouble	Animator
1941	Pluto's Playmate	Animator and director
1949	Popeye's Premiere	Animator
1951	Plutopia	Animator
	R'coon Dawg	Animator
	Cold Turkey	Animator
1952	Pluto's Party	Animator
1953	The Simple Things	Animator
1954	Social Lion	Animator
1958	To Itch His Own	Animator

TV series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1956	Disneyland	Animator	Episode: Where Do the Stories Come From?

External links

• Norman Ferguson at IMDb