Eric Cleon Larson (September 3, 1905 – October 25, 1988) 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 ...

for the Walt Disney Studios starting in 1933, and was one of the "

Disney's Nine Old Men Disney's Nine Old Men were Walt Disney Productions' core animators, some of whom later became directors, who created some of Disney's most famous animated cartoons, from ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'' (1937) onward to ''The Rescuers'' (1977 ...

Biography

Born in

Cleveland, Utah Cleveland is a town in Emery County, Utah, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 464, down from 508 at the 2000 census. Geography Cleveland is located in northwestern Emery County in a swale of land between the mountains ...

, Larson was the son of Danish immigrants Peter, a clothing salesman, and Nora.1920 United States Federal Census He worked on such films as ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'', ''Pinocchio'', ''Fantasia'', ''Bambi'', ''The Three Caballeros'', ''Make Mine Music'', ''Melody Time'', ''Cinderella'', ''Alice in Wonderland'', ''Peter Pan'', ''Lady and the Tramp'', ''Sleeping Beauty'', ''One Hundred and One Dalmatians'', ''The Sword in the Stone'', ''The Jungle Book'', and ''The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh''. Throughout the years, Larson has animated characters on classics like ''The Aristocats'' and ''Robin Hood'' and also provided the titles on ''The Rescuers'' (along with

Mel Shaw Mel Shaw (born Melvin Schwartzman; December 19, 1914 – November 22, 2012) was an American animator, design artist, writer, and artist. Shaw was involved in the animation, story design, and visual development of numerous Disney animated films, ...

and

Burny Mattinson Burnett "Burny" Mattinson (born May 13, 1935) is an American storyboard artist for Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he has been employed since 1953. Mattinson was honored as an inductee of the Disney Legends program in 2008. Mattinson is of ...

). In the 1980s his work was minor, but he served as animation consultant on animated films and shorts like ''Mickey's Christmas Carol'', ''The Black Cauldron'', and ''The Great Mouse Detective''. In 1973, he began a recruitment training program that brought a new generation of animators into the Disney studio. Many well-known figures in animation today went through Larson's training program, including

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 i ...

Don Bluth Donald Virgil Bluth (; born September 13, 1937) is an American film director, animator, production designer, and animation instructor, best known for his animated films, including ''The Secret of NIMH'' (1982), ''An American Tail'' (1986), ''Th ...

Chris Buck Christopher James Buck (born February 24, 1958) is an American film director, animator, and screenwriter known for co-directing ''Tarzan'' (1999), '' Surf's Up'' (2007) (which was nominated for the 2007 Oscar for Best Animated Feature), '' Fr ...

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as ''Beetlejuice'' (1988), ''Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...

Randy Cartwright Randy Cartwright (born October 31, 1951 in Virginia) is an American animator. Career Randy Cartwright graduated from UCLA in 1974, where he made his student animated film, ''Room and Board'', which won several awards and was included in the F ...

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 ...

, Andreas Deja,

Gary Goldman Gary Wayne Goldman (born November 17, 1944) is an American film producer, director, animator, writer and voice actor. He is known for working on films with Don Bluth such as ''All Dogs Go to Heaven'' for his directorial debut, ''Anastasia'', ' ...

, Ed Gombert,

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 '' T ...

Dan Haskett Daniel A. Haskett (born August 20, 1952) is an American veteran animator who, according to ''Variety'', was one of a "group of young animators trained by Disney's 'Nine Old Men' that were confined to one small room in the Disney Feature Animatio ...

Glen Keane Glen Keane (born April 13, 1954) is an American animator, author and illustrator. He was a character animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios for feature films including ''The Little Mermaid'', ''Beauty and the Beast'', ''Aladdin'', ''Pocahonta ...

Bill Kroyer William Kroyer is an American director of animation and computer graphics commercials, short films, movie titles, and theatrical films. He and Jerry Rees were the main animators for the CGI sequences in ''Tron''. He is currently the head of the Di ...

John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter (; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, voice actor, and the head of animation at Skydance Animation. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, ...

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 ...

Phil Nibbelink Phil Nibbelink (born June 3, 1955) is an American animator and film director as well as comic book writer and illustrator known for his work on films as the Academy Award-winning ''Who Framed Roger Rabbit'' and the 1991 cult animated sequel '' An ...

Richard Rich Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich (July 1496 – 12 June 1567), was Lord Chancellor during King Edward VI of England's reign, from 1547 until January 1552. He was the founder of Felsted School with its associated almshouses in Essex in 1564. He wa ...

, Burny Mattinson,

Melvin Shaw Mel Shaw (born Melvin Schwartzman; December 19, 1914 – November 22, 2012) was an American animator, design artist, writer, and artist. Shaw was involved in the animation, story design, and visual development of numerous Disney animated films, ...

Jeffrey J. Varab Jeffrey James Varab is a leading animator and visual effects artist and one of the pioneers of 3D computer animation. His work on the 1995 film ''Casper'' marked the first fully computer-rendered lead character in a feature film, beating Woody and ...

John Pomeroy John Foster Pomeroy (born March 26, 1951) is an American animator who has worked for several major studios, including Walt Disney Animation Studios and Sullivan Bluth Studios. He has also worked as producer, and screenwriter on several animated ...

Joe Ranft Joseph Henry Ranft (March 13, 1960 – August 16, 2005) was an American screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist and voice actor. He worked for Pixar Animation Studios and Disney at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney Television Animation ...

Jerry Rees Jerry W. Rees (born November 15, 1956) is an American film director and animator, best known for the Emmy-nominated animated film ''The Brave Little Toaster'' (1987) and creating many of the visual effects for the cult classic ''Tron'' (1982). E ...

Henry Selick Charles Henry Selick Jr. (; born November 30, 1952) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, production designer, and animator who is best known for directing the stop-motion animation films ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...

and

Tad Stones Edward T. "Tad" Stones (born May 28, 1952) is an American animator, storyboard artist, screenwriter, producer and director, best known for his work for The Walt Disney Company, where he worked from 1974 to 2003. His most notable credits for Disn ...

among many others. Larson was married to Gertrude Larson. By his retirement in 1986, he was the longest-working employee at Disney, having worked there for 53 years. He died on October 25, 1988, at the age of 83.

Filmography

References

External links

*
Disney Legends
{{DEFAULTSORT:Larson, Eric 1905 births 1988 deaths People from Emery County, Utah American people of Danish descent Animators from Utah Walt Disney Animation Studios people Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)