Claude Coats (January 17, 1913 – January 9, 1992) was an American artist, background artist, animator and set designer, known for his work with the

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...

and

Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and attra ...

. His pioneering work with the company helped define the character of animated films, and later, immersive installations with his designs for

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...

. Coats, known as "The Gentle Giant" was inducted a Disney Legend in 1991.

Personal life

Claude Coats was raised in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and graduated from Polytechnic High School. On an athletic scholarship, Coats attended

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

as an architecture student, but later received his bachelor's degree in drawing in 1934. He later attended

Chouinard Art Institute The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879–1969) in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1961, Walt and Roy Disney guided the merger of the Chouinard Art I ...

and studied

watercolor painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

with Paul Sample. Upon matriculation, Coats became an active member of the California Water Color Society, which garnered the interest of the film industry. Coats accepted an interview at Disney’s Hyperion Studio and began an apprenticeship in background painting in 1935. While working at the studio, Claude met his future wife, Evelyn Henry, an inker in the Ink and Paint Department. The couple were married in July 1937 and went on to have two sons, Alan and Lee. Claude and Evelyn were avid world travelers. They visited remote locations at Petra,

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, and Machu Picchu, long before these became popular tourist destinations. They joined the first American tour groups to visit China when that country was opened to Western visitors. Claude would return with a sketchbook and film to create vivid paintings of his travels. When he decided it was time to discover

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

, Claude realized his long-time dream to visit all seven continents. Penguins would become a favorite subject to paint and sculpt.

Career as background painter

Coats' earliest film work included the 1935 animated shorts '' Mickey's Fire Brigade'' and '' Pluto's Judgement Day''. He also painted backgrounds for the ''

Silly Symphony ''Silly Symphony'' is an American animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the ''Silly Symphonies'' were originally intended as whimsical accompaniments to pieces ...

'' musical shorts, earning him membership to the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

. His distinctive, layered style is prominently featured in the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...

winners '' The Old Mill'' and ''

Ferdinand the Bull Ferdinand is a Germanic name composed of the elements "protection", "peace" (PIE "to love, to make peace") or alternatively "journey, travel", Proto-Germanic , abstract noun from root "to fare, travel" (PIE , "to lead, pass over"), and "co ...

''. He was personally selected as one of the artists by

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

to paint the backgrounds for the studio's first full-length film, ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', also the first full-length animated film created in the United States. He would continue his contributions and color styling to over twenty other Disney animated films.

Career as Imagineer

In 1955, Coats was again appointed by Disney to the staff of WED Enterprises (now known as Walt Disney Imagineering). This "second career" as one of

's art directors and show designers brought his dynamic film sets to an immersive, three-dimensional space. These designs, along with those of Mary Blair, themed the

Carousel of Progress Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress is a rotating theater audio-animatronic stage show attraction in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida just outside of Orlando, Florida. Created ...

, Ford Magic Skyway and

It's a Small World "It's a Small World" is a water-based boat ride located in the Fantasyland area at various Disney theme parks worldwide, including Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California; Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida; Tokyo D ...

at the 1964 New York World's Fair as well as WDI's future installations. Coats would go on to serve as the designer for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride,

Snow White's Scary Adventures Snow White's Enchanted Wish is a dark ride at the Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris theme parks, and formerly at the Magic Kingdom. Located in Fantasyland, it is one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on Disney ...

, Pirates of the Caribbean, World of Motion and Horizons. Until his retirement in November 1989, Coats would go on to do major designs at every extant Disney theme park, including the

Magic Kingdom Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The ...

EPCOT Epcot, stylized in all uppercase as EPCOT, is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Inspired by an unreal ...

Tokyo Disneyland (local nickname ''TDL'') is a theme park at the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo. Its main gate is directly adjacent to both Maihama Station and Tokyo Disneyland Station. It was the first Disney park to ...

and

Disneyland Paris Disneyland Paris is an entertainment resort in Chessy, Seine-et-Marne, Chessy, France, east of Paris. It encompasses two theme parks, resort hotels, Disney Nature Resorts, a shopping, dining and entertainment complex, and a golf course. Disney ...

Awards

In 1991, he was awarded the Disney Legends award.

Selected Filmography

Walt Disney Imagineering

* Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (1955) * Rainbow Caverns Mine Train (1956) * Alice in Wonderland (1958) * Grand Canyon Diorama (1958) * Submarine Voyage (1959) * Ford Magic Skyway (1964) *

(1964) *

(1964) * Pirates of the Caribbean (1967) * Adventure Thru Inner Space (1967) *

Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is displa ...

(1969) *

(1971) * Mickey Mouse Revue (1971) * 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage (1971) *

If You Had Wings If You Had Wings was an attraction at Walt Disney World. It was a two-person Omnimover dark ride in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom, sponsored by Eastern Air Lines. It featured travel destinations throughout the Caribbean and elsewhere, all of ...

(1972) * Universe of Energy (1982) * World of Motion (1982) * Horizons (1983)