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Art Babbitt | |
|---|---|
| Born | Arthur Harold Babitsky (1907-10-08)October 8, 1907 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. |
| Died | March 4, 1992(1992-03-04) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Arthur Babbitt |
| Occupation | Animator |
| Years active | 1928–1992 |
| Employer(s) | Terrytoons (1929–1932) Walt Disney Productions (1932–1941; 1945–1948) Leon Schlesinger Productions/Warner Bros. Cartoons (1941–1945) UPA (1948–1955) Lou Bunin Films (1949) Storyboard/Hubley Studios, Inc./Quartet Films (1955–1977) Hanna-Barbera (1957–1992) Richard Williams Productions (1967–1992) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
Arthur Harold Babitsky (October 8, 1907 – March 4, 1992), better known asArt Babbitt, was an Americananimator, best known for his work atWalt Disney Animation Studios. He received over 80 awards as ananimation director and animator, and also developed the character ofGoofy. Babbitt worked as an animator or animation director on films such asSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs,Pinocchio,Fantasia andDumbo, among others. Outside of Disney, he also animatedThe Wise Quacking Duck forLeon Schlesinger Productions.
Babbitt was born to aJewish family[1] in theLittle Bohemia section ofOmaha, Nebraska, but moved toSioux City, Iowa after he finished kindergarten. After graduating from Sioux City Central High in 1924 at the age of 16, Art decided to move to New York to take on the role ofbreadwinner after his hard-working father had an accident on duty and became paralyzed as a result.
Art Babbitt began his career in New York City working forPaul Terry'sTerrytoons studio. But in the early 1930s he moved to Los Angeles followed by his fellow Terrytoon colleagueBill Tytla, and secured a job animating for the Walt Disney Studio, which was expanding at the time.[2]
Babbitt began his career at Disney as an assistant animator, but his talent was spotted and he was soon promoted to animator.[2] His first important work was a drunken mouse in the shortThe Country Cousin (1936), which won anAcademy Award for the studio.[3]
At the Disney Studio, Babbitt animated theWicked Queen inSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs, a job described by Disney animatorAndreas Deja as "one of the toughest assignments" on the film.[2] While he was working onSnow White, he met his first wife,Marjorie Belcher, a dance model whose live-action performance was used as reference material by the animators for the role of Snow White.[2]
On the filmPinocchio, Babbitt animated the character of Geppetto, and became a directing animator.[3] Of all Disney's films,Pinocchio was the feature which Babbitt most admired, and which he regarded as the finest achievement of the studio during the "Golden Age" of animation.[2] Babbitt also animated the characters of the Dancing Mushrooms, Dancing Thistles, Dancing Orchids, Zeus, Vulcan, and Boreas inFantasia. On the feature filmDumbo, Babbitt was again made a directing animator,[3] and animated the character of the stork. When animating the stork, he made him resemble his voice actor,Sterling Holloway. Babbitt is also credited with developing the character ofGoofy, a character which he later described in the 1987 documentary film "Animating Art":
Goofy was someone who never really knew how stupid he was. He thought long and carefully before he did anything, and then he did it wrong.
He had previously expounded on Goofy’s nature in a 1930s memo:
Think of the Goof as a composite of an everlasting optimist, a gullible Good Samaritan, a half-wit, a shiftless, good-natured colored boy and a hick. His brain is rather vapory.[2]
During the 1930s Babbitt rose to become one of Disney's best-paid artists, and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle despite the austerity of theGreat Depression:
I was living the Life of Riley. I didn't realize how fortunate I was. I was earning a very good salary. I had two servants, a large house, and three cars. You know, what in the world was I going to do with three cars?[2]
However, despite this prosperity, in 1940 he and his wife Marjorie were divorced.[2]
Despite being one of the highest paid animators at Disney, Babbitt was sympathetic to the cause of lower echelon Disney artists seeking to form a union. Most of the strikers werein-betweeners,cel painters, and other less-well paid employees, who in 1941 began industrial action in pursuit of better working conditions. As a top animator, Babbitt was one of relatively few well-paid artists to join the strike, and he became one of the strike leaders. One morning, as Disney drove through picketing workers on his way to the studio, Babbitt heckled him through a bullhorn. Disney exited his car to confront him, and a fistfight was only prevented by the intervention of others.[4]
For his part in the strike, Babbitt earned Walt Disney's enmity. Disney was forced to rehire Babbitt after the strike was over, along with many other strikers, but by then the two men disliked one another. Babbitt worked with directorJack Kinney, another "Goofy man" (meaning that they worked together on the Goofy shorts), as Disney began to look for ways to be rid of Babbitt. "If he gets in your way, let me know", Disney said to Kinney. Babbitt was fired more than once but was reinstated, taking his case successfully all the way to theSupreme Court of the United States, and winning a handsome settlement.[5]
After serving with theU.S. Marines in thePacific War duringWorld War II, Babbitt returned to Disney for a time, following an "unfair labor practices" suit brought by Babbitt against Disney. Disney was forced to rehire him after the war, but Babbitt did not stay long.[2]
Along with some other former Disney strikers, Babbitt left Disney and went to join theUnited Productions of America (UPA), a new studio which pioneered a modern, simplified form of animation. He worked on many of their famous award-winning shorts, including the lead character Frankie in "Rooty Toot-Toot" (1951), and won many awards.[5] In the 1950s he was part owner of Quartet Films, where he worked on television commercials, including the Cleo winning "John & Marsha" spot for Parkay Margarine. Later he was part ofHanna-Barbera's commercial wing.
Known in the animation world as one of the art's most accomplished teachers, in 1973Canadian animatorRichard Williams brought Babbitt to hisLondon studio inSoho Square to deliver a series of lectures on animation acting and technique that subsequently became famous among animators. Some of Babbitt's final work was on the characters King Nod and Phido, the vulture, in Williams' filmThe Thief and the Cobbler.[3] He also animated the Camel with Wrinkled Knees in William'sRaggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure.[3]
In 1991, Disney Company chiefRoy E. Disney, the nephew of Walt, contacted Babbitt and they ended the long feud. Babbitt's former rivals, the pro-Walt animatorsFrank Thomas andOllie Johnston, gave Babbitt a warm and moving eulogy at his funeral service.[citation needed] He was interred in theForest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills).
His first wife (1937–1940) wasMarge Champion, a dance model inSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs. His second wife wasDina Babbitt, an artist and aHolocaust survivor. He had two daughters with Dina, L. Michele Babbitt and Karin Wendy Babbitt.[6] His third wife until his death was actressBarbara Perry. His step-daughter from Barbara is Laurel James. Babbitt died ofkidney failure on March 4, 1992. In the late 1980s, a British television documentary titledAnimating Art was broadcast, celebrating Babbitt's life and work. The documentary was produced and directed byImogen Sutton (Richard Williams' wife), and features extensive interviews with Babbitt and his then employer, Williams.[7] Babbitt was posthumously named aDisney Legend in 2007.[8]
TheAcademy Film Archive holds a small collection of personal films belonging to Babbitt.[9] The archive has preserved a number of Babbitt's home movies from this collection, including one of the 1938 Academy Awards.[10]
| Year | Title | Credits | Characters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | Animator | |
| 1940 | Pinocchio | Animation Director | |
| Fantasia | Animator - Segment "The Nutcracker Suite" / Animation Supervisor - Segment "The Pastoral Symphony" | ||
| 1941 | Dumbo | Animation Director | |
| 1943 | The Wise Quacking Duck (Short)[11] | Animator | |
| 1947 | Bootle Beetle (Short) | ||
| Fun and Fancy Free | Character Animator | ||
| Foul Hunting (Short) | Animator | ||
| 1949 | Ragtime Bear (Short) | ||
| 1950 | Giddyap (Short) | Director | |
| The Popcorn Story | |||
| 1951 | The Family Circus (Short) | Director / Animator | |
| Barefaced Flatfoot (Short) | Animator | ||
| Fuddy Duddy Buddy (Short) | |||
| Grizzly Golfer (Short) | |||
| Rooty Toot Toot (Short) | |||
| 1952 | The Four Poster (Short) | ||
| 1953 | Job Evaluation and Merit Rating (Short) | Director | |
| 1958 | Date with Dizzy (Short) | Animator | |
| 1964 | The Nut House!! (TV Movie) | ||
| 1966 | The Lone Ranger (TV Series) | Director | |
| 1969 | Of Men and Demons (Short) | Animator | |
| 1976 | Everybody Rides the Carousel | ||
| 1977 | Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure | Animator: The Camel with the Wrinkled Knees | |
| 1988 | Animating Art (TV Movie documentary) | Himself | |
| The South Bank Show (TV Series documentary) | Thanks - 1 Episode "The Art of Walt Disney" | ||
| 1993 | The Thief and the Cobbler | Lead Animator | |
| 2012 | Persistence of Vision (Documentary) | Himself |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
