Phyllis Barnhart (December 16, 1922 – February 6, 2008) was an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

and cel painter. She was best known for her work on the 1982 animated

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, ''

The Secret of NIMH ''The Secret of NIMH'' is a 1982 American animated fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut and based on Robert C. O'Brien's 1971 children's novel, '' Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH''. The film features the voices ...

'' (which was her only credit in an animated film, coincidentally enough). Naomi Phyllis Fowler was born on December 16, 1922, in

Levan, Utah Levan ( ) is a town in Juab County, Utah, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 841, and in 2018 the estimated population was 924 (an eight year increase of 9.9%). It is often said that the name of the town derives from i ...

. She began her career in animation at the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

studio during the 1940s, starting on the films '' Fun & Fancy Free'' and ''

Melody Time ''Melody Time'' is a 1948 American live-action/animated musical film produced by Walt Disney. The tenth Disney animated feature film, it was released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on May 27, 1948. Made up of seven segments set to popular mu ...

'', at the inking and painting department. She later worked as a freelance assistant animator and cel painter for such classic animation studios as

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live-action programming for television from 1963 until 1989. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1962. Filmation's founders and pr ...

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ) was an American animation studio and production company which was active from 1957 to 2001. It was founded on July 7, 1957, by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera following the decision of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to c ...

, Bandolier Films,

Chuck Jones Productions The following is the filmography of American animator Chuck Jones. Warner Bros. Cartoons Inc. Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies Theatrical shorts (1938–1964) * '' The Night Watchman'' (1938) (director) * '' Dog Gone Modern'' (1939) (director) ...

Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Fred Wolf Films is an American animation studio founded in 1967 by Fred Wolf and Jimmy T. Murakami. It was founded as MW (Murakami-Wolf). It later became known as Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (MWS) when Charles Swenson became a full partner in 1978. ...

, DePatie-Freleng and of course,

. She worked as one of the lead cel painters for ''

'' (1982), which was created at

Don Bluth Productions Don Bluth Entertainment (formerly Sullivan Bluth Studios) was an Irish-American animation studio established in 1979 by animator Don Bluth. Bluth and several colleagues, all of whom were former Disney animators, left Disney on September 13, 1979, ...

. Barnhart's husband Dale Barnhart, died in 1996. He worked as a Disney

layout Layout may refer to: * Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page ** Comprehensive layout (comp), a proposed page layout presented by a designer to their client * Layout (computing), the process of calculating the position of obje ...

and

background artist A background artist or sometimes called a background stylist or background painter is one who is involved in the process of animation who establishes the color, style, and mood of a scene drawn by an animation layout artist. The methods used can e ...

on films such as ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, ...

'' and '' The Sword in the Stone''. Phyllis Barnhart died at the age of 85 on February 6, 2008, in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. She was survived by her daughter, Fotini, and three sons, Rhio, Roberleigh and Philo Barnhart (who worked as an assistant animator on films such as ''

'' and ''

Beauty and the Beast ''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...

'').

References

External links

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Cinematical: RIP Reel Important People, Phyllis Barnhart
1922 births 2008 deaths People from Juab County, Utah Animators from Utah American women animators Walt Disney Animation Studios people Filmation people Hanna-Barbera people Sullivan Bluth Studios people {{US-animator-stub