Ward Kimball

Infobox actor
name = Ward Kimball


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caption = Ward Kimball puic|
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birthname = Ward Walrath Kimball
birthdate = March 4, 1914
birthplace = Minneapolis, Minnesota
deathdate = July 8, 2002 (aged 88)
deathplace = Los Angeles, California
othername =
occupation = Animator
Walt Disney Studios
1934 – 1972
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Ward Walrath Kimball (March 4, 1914 – July 8, 2002) was an Academy Award-winning animator for the Walt Disney Studios. He was one of Walt Disney's team of animators known as Disney's Nine Old Men.

While Kimball was a brilliant draftsman, he preferred to work on comical characters rather than complicated human designs. Animating came easily to him and he was constantly looking to do things differently. Because of this, Walt Disney called Ward a genius in the book "The Story Of Walt Disney". While there were many talented animators at Disney, Ward's efforts stand out as especially unique.

Kimball created several classic Disney characters including the Crows in "Dumbo"; Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat from "Alice in Wonderland"; the Mice and Lucifer the Cat from "Cinderella"; and Jiminy Cricket from "Pinocchio". He also animated the famous "Three Caballeros" musical number from the Disney film of the same name.

In the mid-1950s, Kimball became a director and was responsible for the Academy Award-winning short "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom", and three Disney television shows about outer space that put the United States into the space program. He received an Academy Award for the short animated cartoon "It's Tough to Be a Bird" (1969). [cite web| url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064504/| title=It's Tough to be a Bird| date=2008|accessdate=2008-01-06 ]

Ward Kimball was profiled by the Academy Award-winning producer Jerry Fairbanks in his Paramount Pictures film short series "Unusual Occupations". [imdb title|0363164|Unusual Occupations L-5-2] This 35mm Magnacolor film short was released theatrically in 1944 and focused on Kimball's backyard railroad and full sized locomotive.

Kimball was also a jazz trombonist. He founded and led the seven-piece Dixieland band Firehouse Five Plus Two, in which he played trombone. The band made at least 13 LP records and toured clubs, college campuses and jazz festivals from the 1940s to early 1970s. Kimball once said that Walt Disney permitted the second career as long as it did not interfere with his animation work.

Kimball continued to work at Disney up until the early 1970s, working on the Disney television program, creating animation for "Mary Poppins", directing the animation for "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", and working on titles for feature films such as "The Adventures Of Bullwhip Griffin" (1967) and "Million Dollar Duck" (1971). His last staff work for Disney was producing and directing the Disney TV show "The Mouse Factory". He continued to do various projects on his own, even returning to Disney to do some publicity tours. Additionally, Kimball worked on an attraction for Disney's EPCOT Center called "The World Of Motion".

Kimball also produced two editions of a volume titled "Art Afterpieces," ["Art Afterpieces", ISBN 978-0843103663] in which he revised various well-known works of art, such as putting "Mona Lisa"'s hair up in curlers, showing "Whistler's Mother" watching TV, and adding a Communist flag and Russian boots to "Pinkie".

His only two acting appearances on film were an uncredited role as a jazz musician (with his fellow members of the Firehouse Five Plus Two) in "Hit Parade of 1951" (1950) and as an IRS Chief in Mike Jittlov's "The Wizard of Speed and Time" (1989).

Kimball died in 2002 in Los Angeles, California of complications from pneumonia at age 88. In 2005, the Disneyland Railroad named their newly-acquired Engine №5 the "Ward Kimball" in his memory.

Grizzly Flats Railroad

Along with his employer and friend Walt Disney, and fellow mate Ollie Johnston, Kimball also collected old railroad ephemera. Kimball was an avid railway enthusiast and donated his RailGauge|36 gauge collection to the Orange Empire Railway Museum in Perris, California. A full-sized steam locomotive, - which Kimball ran on his private three acre backyard railroad known as "Grizzly Flats Railroad" in San Gabriel, California - bears some of his original artwork on the headlamp and cab, and is on permanent display at the museum.

Kimball is also credited with helping Walt Disney for the inspiration to install the Disneyland Railroad at Disneyland. Inspiration for the Disneyland Railroad also partly came from Walt's own personal RailGauge|7.25 gauge, live steam backyard Carolwood Pacific Railroad -- also partly built by Ward. Kimball's Grizzly Flats train station was the model for the Disneyland Frontierland Train Station.

References

External links

*
* [http://legends.disney.go.com/legends/detail?key=Ward+Kimball Disney Legends]
* http://www.fecrailway.com/ward.htm
* [http://www.animationblast.com/view/wardkimball Animation Blast: Remembering Ward Kimball]
* [http://www.oerm.org/ Official OERM website] and [http://www.oerm.org/pages/GF.htm Grizzly Flats Railroad Page]