Disney and Hanna-Barbera animtor Harry Holt passed away April 14, 2004. He was 93 years old.
Holt first went to work at Disney in 1936 during the hiring ramp up for production on SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Trained at the studio, he started out as an apprentice and worked his way helping develop the feature. He would later help design scenes for LADY AND THE TRAMP.
After 20 years at Disney, he moved to Chicago to work in television production and art direction. Later he joined HB, where he worked on THE FLINTSTONES and TOM AND JERRY.
In the 1960s, Holt returned to Disney as chief designer at Walt Disney World, designing sculptural models of characters for several rides. Those models were then transformed into the life-size animatronic characters. Attractions based on his models included Pirates of the Caribbean, Country Bear Jamboree, Snow White, Peter Pan and the Haunted Mansion. Toward the end of his career, he greeted visitors to the Disney/MGM Studio Preview Center and signed replicas of his Disney character sketches.
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Animation World Network
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