Ollie Johnston

Who is Ollie Johnston? You may not know Ollie Johnston’s name or face, but you’ve seen his acting — it’s been all but imprinted in your DNA since childhood. Johnston, who died Monday at 95, was the last of the “Nine Old Men,” the animators responsible for the classic Disney cartoon features made from the 1930s to the 1970s.

They invented the model for how animated features should be made, and each of them took on specific characters in the movie and acted the roles through their drawings. Johnston, in particular, was revered among animators for his emotional directness, from the scene of Bambi’s mother’s death in Bambi to the plight of the kidnapped orphan Penny in The Rescuers.

(That film’s Rufus, a wise old cat, was the closest Johnston came to self-portraiture.) Source More related readings. Kitty Go and Andrea Berg on lifestyle.