Search form

Ollie Johnston has passed away.

15 posts / 0 new
Last post
Ollie Johnston has passed away.

Reading reports now that Ollie Johnston passed away today.

One of the greats of Disney Animation, and one of the true legends in the craft of animation.

He will be sorely missed.

Rest your pencil, Ollie.........God bless you.

Ken Davis's picture

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

"We all grow older, we do not have to grow up"--Archie Goodwin ( 1937-1998)

A true legend in his field.

Here's to Ollie

Ollie was always a gentleman! He was kind, yet had a twinkle in his eye that told you something was going on behind those whiskers.

I thought it was great.... when he and Frank Thomas voiced the engineers and lent their likenesses in IRON GIANT directed by Brad Bird.

He lives on in his many contributions to animation.

A legend, no doubt.

I betcha he's up there drawing right now!

Prayers to the family...

Splatman:(

I guess there goes the last of a generation of artists who really pushed the craft. Sure, nowadays they still invent new technologies and even traditional animators go on to animate with varying levels of excellency - but to have really been there when the medium was new, fresh and bold during Hollywood's Golden Age!
Be glad, all you who had the chance to meet one of the Nine Old Men, Clampett, Jones, Babbit, Culhane, McKimson, Tashlin, Iwerks, Moore, Tytla and all those other legends.

The students are now on their own.

all good things come to an end. his contributions to our common love have been immense.

salute & goodbye.

Entertainment Weekly had a mention of Ollie's passing in their April 25th issue. Unfortunately, they ran it with accompanied by a picture of Frank Thomas, but it was nice to see his passing didn't go unnoticed by the mainstream entertainment press.

A very sad day indeed. Ollie Johnston will be sorely missed, but his spirit and love of the art will carry on and continue to inspire in his works and his words.

Rest in peace.

...we must all face a choice, between what is right... and what is easy."

Yes very sad news, he made an amazing contribution to the world of animation.

Visit my website:

Claire O'Brien.com

I think the best tribute we can make to Ollie Johnston (and the rest of Walt's Nine Old Men) is to apply their lessons to our own work and continue their legacy. :)

Hope to meet you on the other side Mr. Johnston.

It's sad.

We've lost a treasure to our industry. He was one of the greatest men who ever put a pencil to paper.

Heartfelt condolences to his family, his friends and everyone with fond memories of him.

Follow @chaostoon on Twitter!

Call me a serial contrarian, which I am, but it's hard to be sad about the man's dying when it's so much easier to be glad for the man's living so fully. All we can ask of death is that it be appropriate rather than senseless, and in Mister Johnston's case it was both timely and gentle.

He made it to 95, which is a fair measure better than the national average.
He retired years ago, and had no great projects unfinished (as far as I know.)
In 2005 he received the highest artistic award anyone in the profession has ever been granted in the United States for animation - he was recognized. In the same year, his wife died - he's been missing her, I'm sure.
And he had a career that blossomed simultaneously with the Golden Age, and concluded in time for him to enjoy and advise the renaissance.

And most of all, his name's going to be indelibly etched in the hall of masters for the history of animation; if you learn animation well, you've learnt something from him, and even if your only relation to animation is your enjoyment of it, something of the man lives on in that experience too. He won his posterity, which is an elusive triumph that many artists, unfortunately, fail to achieve.

And something tells me that a man who rode around on a tiny little train in his backyard wouldn't want anyone being "sad" on his account.

Animation is enriched for his having lived, and he, in turn, well enriched for having animated, so I don't see any need for melodramatics or teary goodbyes. I bid a fond farewell to the old conductor of steam engines and illusory life as he disappears into the shade of the tunnel away from us, and shamelessly envy the track he traveled to there.

Godspeed, Ollie. I think I'll watch Bambi tonight and have a good cry.

One of my students came in today, raving about the documentary "Frank and Ollie", which he had watched for the first time last night. He hadn't heard about Ollie's passing until I told him.

RIP, Ollie. :(