Eric Cleon Larson (September 3, 1905 – October 25, 1988) was an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates 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 games. Animat ...

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

Disney's Nine Old Men Disney's Nine Old Men were a group of Walt Disney Productions' core animators, who worked at the studio from the 1920s to the 1980s. Some of the Nine Old Men also worked as directors, creating some of Disney's most popular animated movies from '' ...

Biography

Born in Cleveland, Utah, 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 and Burny Mattinson). 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 Philip Bradley Bird (born September 24, 1957) is an American filmmaker, animator, and voice actor. He has had a career spanning over four decades in both animation and Live action, live-action. Bird was born in Montana and grew up in Oregon. He ...

Don Bluth Donald Virgil Bluth ( ; born September 13, 1937) is an American filmmaker, animator, video game designer and author. He came to prominence working for Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions before creating his own film studio in ...

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), '' F ...

Tim Burton Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and producer. Known for popularizing Goth subculture, Goth culture in the American film industry, Burton is famous for his Gothic film, gothic horror and dark fantasy films. ...

, Randy Cartwright,

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 animated films ...

Andreas Deja Andreas Deja (born 1 April 1957) 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, in ...

Gary Goldman Gary Wayne Goldman (born November 17, 1944) is an American film producer, director, animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequ ...

, Ed Gombert,

Mark Henn Mark Alan Henn (born April 6, 1958) is an American animator and film director. His work includes animated characters for Walt Disney Animation Studios films, most notably leading or titular characters and heroines. He served as the lead animator f ...

, Dan Haskett,

Glen Keane Glen Keane (born April 13, 1954) is an American animator, director, author and illustrator. As a character animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios for 38 years (1974–2012), he worked on feature films including ''The Little Mermaid'', ''Beau ...

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''. From 2009 to 2021, he served as ...

John Lasseter John Alan Lasseter ( ; born January 12, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and animator. He was previously the chief creative officer of Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Disneytoon Studios, a ...

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 Disney animated films ''Th ...

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 was ...

, Burny Mattinson, Melvin Shaw, Jeffrey J. Varab,

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,

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

Henry Selick Charles Henry Selick Jr. (; born November 30, 1952) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his work in stop motion animation and for directing the films ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ''James and the Giant Peach (film) ...

and Tad Stones 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 American people of Danish descent Animators from Utah Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) Disney Legends People from Emery County, Utah Walt Disney Animation Studios people