4 Jul 2013

Death of movie animator

6:07 am on 4 July 2013

Movie animator John David Wilson, famed for Grease and the Lady and the Tramp films, has died.

In a long career at Disney, Wilson, 93, worked on the characters Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck.

He joined Pinewood Studios after World War II and worked on films such as Great Expectations and The Thief of Bagdad before eventually moving to the United States to work for Walt Disney Studios where he helped animate the Lady and the Tramp, a 1955 dog romance.

He also animated the opening for the high school musical Grease (1878) that starred John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

Wilson also worked on Disney's Peter Pan. He also worked for Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones and Mr Magoo and the trailer for Irma La Douce, a romantic comedy by Billy Wilder.