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Dutchman
05-10-2005, 02:33 PM
I just read on a Dutch newssite that the Disneyanimator Joe Grant, who was responsible for by name Snowwhite and Dombo, died today. He became 96 years old, and died while drawing.

For the Dutch people:
De tekenaar Joe Grant overleed aan een hartaanval terwijl hij bezig was met zijn meest geliefde bezigheid: tekenen. Hij werd 96 jaar. Ondanks zijn hoge leeftijd werkte hij toch nog vier dagen in de week voor Disney. De Amerikaanse tekenaar was een van de ontwerpers van Dombo, de vliegende olifant, en hij bedacht Lady en de Vagebond. Een verhaal over twee honden uit verschillende milieus die verliefd worden op elkaar.

Translation to English:
The artist Joe Grant died because of an heart attack, while he was bussy with his most beloved thing: drawing. He became 96 years old. Unless his high age he still worked four days a week for Disney. The American drawer was one of the designers of Dombo, the fliing elephant, and he made the idea for Lady and the Tramp. A story about two dogs out of different environments who fell in love with each other.

I couldn't find anything so far on another site, and I think it hasn't been posted here yet...

[source: http://www.nos.nl/jeugdjournaal/artikelen/2005/5/10/sneeuwwitje.html ]

I wish his family and relatives the best... He'll live forth in the great pieces of art of the old days...
Spater
05-10-2005, 03:07 PM
I feel we've lost a legend today :( I wish his family the best.
dbclemons
05-10-2005, 04:05 PM
Nice interview with him here:

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue4.08/4.08pages/lyonsgrant.php3

-David
stenosis|kill
05-10-2005, 04:56 PM
r.i.p. mastermind :sad:
jake_$teed
05-10-2005, 09:02 PM
I saw it on tv this morning. It was at the gym, so there was no sound, but it's nice to see some recognition to someone who could really make someting come to life.
mmkelly011881
05-10-2005, 09:08 PM
oh man...




one more star in the sky
dodoman
05-10-2005, 09:18 PM
my condolences to his family
Kimotion
05-11-2005, 01:18 AM
There's something really poetic about an artist in his old age passing away while doing what he loved most. I can only dream of passing in the way he did.
Geta-Ve
05-11-2005, 01:36 AM
:( Well at least he died literally doing what he loves :)

RIP Joe
jampoz
05-11-2005, 05:47 AM
There's something really poetic about an artist in his old age passing away while doing what he loved most. I can only dream of passing in the way he did.

A digital translation of this would be passing away while waiting for the render to complete
pogonip
05-11-2005, 06:30 AM
RIP.... I think it's awesome that he died the way he did ...I wanna go that way too ! :applause: :buttrock:
SheepFactory
05-11-2005, 06:32 AM
RIP.... I think it's awesome that he died the way he did ...I wanna go that way too ! :applause: :buttrock:


I second that. his legend will live on.
Manwich
05-11-2005, 11:03 AM
it is a sad day indeed!!!

From the golden days of disney...one of the pioneers of animation....

I hope somewhere there is a wall within the walls of disney with a brass plaque on it for all the forerunners of the original disney studios. A monument to the foundation of disney..

I sincerly hope he didn't suffer and thoughts go out to his family....

Drawing til the end.....a true artist.

Manwich
FloydBishop
05-11-2005, 01:09 PM
This is sad news. While I never met Mr Grant in person, we did have a few email exchanges after his 2004 AWN article:

http://mag.awn.com/index.php?ltype=pageone&article_no=2065&page=2

In the article, the interviewer asked Joe if 3D animation had him excited. His reply was:

quote:There’s a certain subtlety and there’s something you can do with the puppetry, which you can’t do in line. You can attempt it, and you can take as an example the Tex Avery type of technique that moved into Ice Age beautifully. And if you had done the same thing in line it wouldn’t be as funny. I’m positive of that because of the truth that comes from the realism. Having worked on "Ice Age", I was honored that someone with such a background mentioned that film by name as an example of what was good about CG. I had some friends at Disney at the time, and I got Joe's email from one of them.

I wrote him a quick email, more of a fan letter actually, telling him how happy I was that he enjoyed "Ice Age". I was pretty floored when he wrote me back a lengthy response.

Even with such a long career in 2D animation, he saw what was possible with CG.

He was one of the people who not only "got it", but kept putting out high quality work right up to the last.

Big shoes to fill, to be sure.

RIP Joe.
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