Walt Stanchfield (July 14, 1919 – September 3, 2000) was an American animator, writer and teacher. Stanchfield is known for work on a series of classic animated feature films at Walt Disney Studios and his mentoring of Disney animators. Walter Stanchfield was born in 1919 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. After graduating from high school in 1937, Stanchfield worked as an animator at the

Charles Mintz Charles Bear Mintz (November 5, 1889 – December 30, 1939)''Social Security Death Index, 1935–2014''. Social Security Administration. was an American film producer and distributor who assumed control over Margaret J. Winkler's Winkler Pictu ...

Studio. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he served in the U.S. Navy. Returning to California, he briefly worked at the Walter Lantz Studio before joining Walt Disney Studios to work on the 1949 full-length animated feature ''

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad ''The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad'' is a 1949 American animated anthology film produced by Walt Disney Productions, released by RKO Radio Pictures and directed by Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney and James Algar with Ben Sharpsteen as production ...

''. His career included work on every subsequent Disney animated feature, including character animation on ''

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, ...

'' in 1967 and '' The Aristocats'' in 1970. His final film for Disney was ''

The Great Mouse Detective ''The Great Mouse Detective'' (also known as ''The Adventures of the Great Mouse Detective'' for its 1992 theatrical re-release and ''Basil the Great Mouse Detective'' in some countries) is a 1986 American animated mystery film, mystery adventur ...

'' in 1986. In 1987, Stanchfield served as an animation consultant on ''

Who Framed Roger Rabbit ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' is a 1988 American live-action/animated comedy mystery film directed by Robert Zemeckis, produced by Frank Marshall and Robert Watts, and loosely adapted by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman from Gary K. Wolf's 1 ...

''. In the 1970s, Stanchfield and Eric Larson created a training program for new animators at Disney studios. The program included weekly drawing classes and lectures. Stanchfield's students included numerous prominent animators, such as

Brad Bird Phillip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American film director, animator, screenwriter, producer, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning forty years in both animation and live-action. Bird was born in Montana and grew up in ...

, John Lasseter, Don Bluth, Joe Ranft,

John Musker John Edward Musker (born November 8, 1953) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He often collaborates with fellow director Ron Clements and is best known for writing and directing the Walt Disney Animation Studi ...

Ron Clements Ronald Francis Clements (born April 25, 1953) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He often collaborates with fellow director John Musker and is best known for writing and directing the Disney films ''The Grea ...

, Glen Keane,

Andreas Deja Andreas Deja is a Polish-born German-American character animator, most noted for his work at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Deja's work includes serving as supervising animator on characters in several Disney animated films, including the Disney ...

, and

Mark Henn Mark Alan Henn (born April 6, 1958) is an American animator and film director. His contributions to animation have included several Walt Disney Animation Studios leading or title characters, most notably heroines. His work includes Ariel in ''The ...

. Those animators would go on to craft important films of the Disney Renaissance: '' The Little Mermaid'', '' Beauty and the Beast'', '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'', ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...

'', '' Pocahontas'', and '' Toy Story''. In 2009, Stanchfield's lecture notes were compiled into the two-volume set ''Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes''.Disney History
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References

External links

*
New York Times
* 1919 births 2000 deaths American animators United States Navy personnel of World War II Walt Disney Animation Studios people Animators from Los Angeles {{US-animator-stub