posted 09-10-2004 07:12 PM                      

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary Walt Disney Co. animator Frank Thomas, whose work ranged from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to "Pinocchio " and "Bambi," has died at age 92, the studio said on Thursday.



One of Disney's original "nine old men," the key group that helped make Disney an animation powerhouse from the 1930s onward, Thomas died on Wednesday after months of declining health following a brain hemorrhage. He died at his home in Flintridge, California, outside Los Angeles, Disney said.

Thomas joined Disney in 1934 when the studio had only just begun working on "Snow White," its first full-length animated feature film. The costly movie nearly drove Disney into bankruptcy, but became the company's foundation after it turned into a huge hit in theaters.

"Frank helped to invent animation as an art form and took it to incredible new heights," film critic Leonard Maltin said.

He was known for emotional scenes, romance and deeply felt work early in his 43-year career at Disney, but in the late 1940s switched to villains.

Thomas created the spaghetti dinner scene between Lady and Rover in "Lady and the Tramp" and dreamed up Thumper showing Bambi how to ice skate in "Bambi." He helped design Pinocchio and was responsible for the scene in which the marionette gets trapped inside a birdcage by the evil Stromboli.

In 1941, Thomas joined Walt Disney on a trip through South America that resulted in "The Three Caballeros."

In 1949, he created the superstitious Ichabod Crane of Sleepy Hollow fame and one year later dreamed up the wicked stepmother in "Cinderella."

Other films on which he worked were "The Jungle Book," The Aristocats," and "Robin Hood." He retired in 1978.

Thomas was born in Santa Monica, California, and went to college at Stanford University, where he met his lifelong friend and another one of the "nine old men," Ollie Johnston, who is the last of those original animators still alive.

Thomas' son, Theodore, made a documentary based on the lifelong friendship between Thomas and Johnston, titled "Frank and Ollie" and released in 1995.

Thomas is survived by his wife of 58 years, Jeanette, their children and grandchildren.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Frank Thomas, one of Walt Disney's top artists who animated two dogs romantically nibbling a single strand of spaghetti in the 1955 Disney film Lady and the Tramp, has died. He was 92.

Thomas died Wednesday at his home, said Howard Green of Disney's Buena Vista Pictures Marketing. Thomas had been in declining health following a cerebral hemorrhage earlier this year.

In his 43-year history at Disney, Thomas, often working with old friend and collaborator Ollie Johnston, also animated the dancing penguins in Mary Poppins and Thumper teaching Bambi how to ice skate.

Walt Disney jokingly dubbed Thomas and other top animators his Nine Old Men, derived from a description of the Supreme Court by President Franklin Roosevelt.

"Frank was a giant in our field, and he meant everything to me and to all of us who loved the art of animation," John Lasseter, creative head of Pixar Animation Studios and a former Disney animator, said in a statement.

Thomas, born in Santa Monica, Calif., graduated from Stanford University, where he majored in art, drew cartoons for the school newspaper and met classmate Johnston, forming a lifelong friendship.

The two started working at the Walt Disney Studios in 1934 and were members of the team that created Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated feature.

Thomas then directed the animation of the title character in Pinocchio, and drew the I've Got No Strings musical number. His other credits include the wicked stepmother in Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland and Captain Hook in Peter Pan.

"Frank is an important part of the Disney legacy and one of the most amazing talents to ever work at the studio," said Michael Eisner, chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Co.

Thomas and Johnston both retired in 1978 and went on to author several influential books on animation, including Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life and The Disney Villain.

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