John Lounsbery

John Lounsbery
Born	John Mitchell Lounsbery (1911-03-09)March 9, 1911 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.
Died	February 13, 1976(1976-02-13) (aged 64) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart failure during surgery
Occupation	Animator
Known for	One of Disney's Nine Old Men
Spouse(s)	Florence Louise Hurd ​ ​ (m. 1935;  1976)​
Children	3

John Mitchell Lounsbery (March 9, 1911 – February 13, 1976) was an American animator who worked for The Walt Disney Company. He is best known as one of Disney's Nine Old Men, of which he was the shortest lived as well as the first to die.

Life and career

He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in Colorado. He attended East Denver High School and the Art Institute of Denver. While attending the Art Center School of Design in Los Angeles, an instructor sent him to interview with Walt Disney.

Lounsbery was hired by Disney on July 2, 1935, beginning as an assistant animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He went on to work on numerous other short features in the 1940s, while continuing to serve as part of the animating team on nearly all of Disney's most famous feature-length animated films. In the 1970s, he was promoted to director and directed Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! and co-directed The Rescuers.

John Lounsbery died on February 13, 1976. At the time of his death, he was working on the The Rescuers and still directing at the Walt Disney Studios. He was named a Disney Legend in 1989.

He was animation director for:

• Dumbo (1941)
• Song of the South (1946)
• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
• Alice in Wonderland (1951)
• Peter Pan (1953)
• Ben and Me (1953)
• Lady and the Tramp (1955)
• Sleeping Beauty (1959)
• Goliath II (1960)
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
• The Sword in the Stone (1963)
• The Jungle Book (1967)
• Robin Hood (1973)

Characters animated by Lounsbery

• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Assistant to Norm Ferguson on Witch
• Pinocchio - J. Worthington Foulfellow and Gideon
• Fantasia - Hiacynth Hippo, Ben Ali Gator, the alligators and the hippos in "Dance of the Hours"
• Dumbo - Dumbo and Timothy Mouse
• The Three Caballeros - Donald Duck, José Carioca, Panchito
• Make Mine Music - Wolf in Peter and the Wolf, "Willie the Operatic Whale"
• Song of the South - Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox and Br'er Bear
• Fun and Fancy Free - Willie the Giant
• Melody Time- "Once Upon a Wintertime", "Blame on the Samba", "Pecos Bill"
• The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad- Ichabod Crane, Katrina van Tassel, Brom Bones, the villagers, the animals
• Cinderella- Lucifer, Mice, Bruno, Major
• Alice in Wonderland- Flowers, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, March Hare (one scene), strange creatures
• Peter Pan - George Darling, Captain Hook, Pirates, Indians, Mary Darling, Wendy Darling, John Darling, Michael Darling, The Lost Boys, Nana
• Ben and Me- Thomas Jefferson
• Lady and the Tramp - Lady, Tramp, Tony, Joe, Peg (one scene), Bull, Toughy, Boris, Cop, Professor, Beaver
• Sleeping Beauty - King Hubert, King Stefan, Goons, Prince Phillip, Queen Leah, Samson, animals
• Goliath II - Goliath II, his Father and Mother and the Elephants
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians - Colonel, Jasper and Horace Badun, Sergeant Tibbs, Danny, various dogs doing the twilight bark, a few scenes of the dalmatians
• The Sword in the Stone - Wart, Merlin, Archimedes, Wolf, Sir Ector, Kay, Pelinore, Pike, Kitchen Woman, Madame Mim
• Mary Poppins - Farmyard animals (rams, lambs, chicken, geese, pig, horse, cow), huntsman and horse
• The Jungle Book - Mowgli, Colonel Hathi, Winifred, Junior, bugler elephant, and other elephants, King Louie, Baloo, Bagheera, monkeys, Shere Kahn, the Vultures
• The Aristocats - Edgar, Georges Hautecourt, Madame Bonfamille, Alley Cats, Roquefort
• Bedknobs and Broomsticks - King Leonidas, animal soccer players
• Robin Hood - Tournament Crocodile, Sheriff of Nottingham
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Owl, Eeyore, Gopher, Winnie the Pooh, Piglet

External links

• John Lounsbery at IMDb
• Disney Legends profile