Animator Frank Thomas Dies at 92
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Animator Frank Thomas, one of the "nine old men" behind Disney's legendary launch into animation in the 1930s, died Wednesday at his home in California; he was 92. The studio released a statement on Thursday confirming Thomas' passing, stating that he had been in declining health the past few months following a brain hemorrhage. One of the animators on such classics as Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, and Bambi, Thomas joined Disney in 1934 just as the studio was beginning production on Snow White, its first full-length animated film. Known primarily for crafting emotional scenes, Thomas was the man who created the spaghetti dinner scene in Lady and the Tramp, the ice-skating sequence in Bambi, and Pinocchio's birdcage incarceration by the evil Stromboli, as well as the "I Got No Strings" number from the same movie. Other famed and celebrated creations included the wicked stepmother in Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, Captain Hook from Peter Pan, and the wary Ichabod Crane of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Thomas met his fellow "old man," Ollie Johnston, at Stanford University, and the friendship between the two was chronicled in the 1995 documentary Frank and Ollie, written and directed by Thomas' son Theodore Thomas. The animator retired in 1978 and went on to write several influential books on animation. Thomas is survived by his wife of 58 years, Jeannette, and their four children.