Disney animator Priscillano "Pres" Romanillos died from complications due to leukemia on July 17th at his home in Tujunga, reports the LA TIMES [1]. He was 47 years old.
He was born in Zamboanga, Philippines and moved to the U.S. in 1971, growing up in Queens. Following high school, he attended the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan.
He started his animation career on THE LITTLE MERMAID as an animation trainee. He would go on to serve as an assistant animator on THE RESCUERS DOWN UNDER, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and ALADDIN. He received his first full animator credit on POCAHONTAS, animating Pocahontas. Romanillos moved to Disney's Florida studio where he animated Shan-Yu for MULAN.
He left Disney to work on DreamWorks early hand-drawn features THE ROAD TO EL DORADO, SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS and SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON. He moved into CG animation with SHREK 2 and MADAGASCAR.
In 2007, he moved to Salamanca, Spain to help launch the Enne animation studio with Scott Johnston. There he made the animated short THE OLD CHAIR, which featured the character Pickle from his blog, Life as a Pickle.
His most recent work was animating Prince Naveen on THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG.
He is survived by his wife Jeannine.
Links:
[1] http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-0721-pres-romanillos-20100721,0,3553902.story