Disney Animator Ward Kimball Dies
Ward Kimball, an animation pioneer who became one of Walt Disney's trusted "Nine Old Men" and will be forever linked with such characters as Mickey Mouse and Jiminy Cricket, has died. He was 88.
Kimball died of natural causes Monday at Arcadia Methodist Hospital, said Howard E. Green of Disney's Buena Vista Pictures Marketing.
Kimball, who joined the Disney family in 1934, animated or served as directing animator on such classics as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Pinocchio," "Fantasia" and "Peter Pan."
He directed the Oscar-winning shorts "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" in 1953 and "It's Tough To Be a Bird" in 1969.
"Ward's passing is a tremendous loss to the animation community and to our studio," said Roy E. Disney, vice chairman of The Walt Disney Company. "He was a brilliant animator and filmmaker with a distinctive style and humor all his own."
Among Kimball's contributions were the redesign of Disney's most recognizable character Mickey Mouse and the creation of Jiminy Cricket for "Pinocchio." Kimball said he drew more than a dozen versions of Jiminy before ending up with a figure that "looked like Mr. Pickwick, but with no ears, no nose and no hair."
After a stint as an animator on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," he was promoted to animation supervisor on "Dumbo," "Fantasia," "The Three Caballeros," "Alice in Wonderland," "Cinderella" and "Peter Pan."
Kimball also wrote the stories for and directed a landmark trio of shows for the "Disneyland" television series — "Man in Space," "Man and the Moon," and "Mars and Beyond."
The trilogy is often credited with popularizing the concept of the government's space program during the 1950s, Green said.
Kimball also produced and directed 43 episodes of the Disney syndicated series, "The Mouse Factory," which began airing in 1972.
He retired from Disney in 1973, but re-emerged five years later for a whistle-stop train tour that traveled from Los Angeles to New York City in celebration of Mickey Mouse's 50th birthday.
Besides creating animated characters, Kimball enjoyed playing trombone. He formed a Dixieland jazz band in 1948, called The Firehouse Five Plus Two. The group played nightclubs and appeared on the Milton Berle and Ed Sullivan television shows. They recorded 12 albums.
His other passion was collecting trains. He bought a full-sized 1881 steam locomotive that he restored with other cars and engines that he operated on his ranch in Southern California. He amassed a collection of model trains and donated some of them to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Riverside in 1992.
Kimball is survived by his wife of 66 years, Betty; three children, John Kimball, Kelly Kimball and Chloe Lord; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.