Happy 97th Birthday, Don Lusk!

It’s always sad to say goodbye to our animation heroes and inspirations, so any opportunity to wish them well in their later years is worth the effort.

Veteran animator Don Lusk turned 97 on October 28th and we wish wish him a Happy Birthday and continued good health. Lusk worked for Disney for many years, starting as an inbetweener in 1933, and became an animator in 1938 on Ferdinand The Bull. He is best known for his work on the Fish Dance in “The Nutcracker Suite” in Fantasia (above), and Cleo the goldfish in Pinocchio, the title character in Alice in Wonderland, Wendy in Peter Pan, and on Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty and 101 Dalmatians.

After his stint at Disney’s Lusk worked on UPA’s Gay Purr-ee (1962), A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), freelanced for Bill Melendez and Walter Lantz studios, then spent 23 years at Hanna-Barbera, directing everything from Scooby Doo to Yo Yogi!, working well into the 1990s. Congratulations, Don, and best wishes from all of us at Cartoon Brew!

(Thanks Steve Hartley and Dan Adler)