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Frank Thomas: Disney Animator Dies at 92Legendary Walt Disney animator Frank Thomas, whose work ranged from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to "Pinocchio " and "Bambi", has died at age 92, the studio says.
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 haemorrhage. 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 theatres.
"Frank helped to invent animation as an art form and took it to incredible new heights," film critic Leonard Maltin said on Thursday.
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
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September 10, 2004 | Viewed 22,093 time(s)
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