Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks was born on March 24, 1901. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks ( ub EYE-wurks; born Ubbe Ert Iwwerks, March 24, 1901 – July 7, 1971) was an American animator, cartoonist, film director, film producer, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician. He was widely known for his early work with Walt Disney Productions, especially for having worked on the creation of Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, among other characters. Iwerks met Walt Disney in 1919 while working at an art studio in Kansas City, Missouri. After briefly working as illustrators for a local newspaper company, they ventured into animation together. Iwerks joined Disney as chief animator on the Laugh-O-Gram shorts series beginning in 1922, but a studio bankruptcy would cause Disney to relocate to Los Angeles in 1923. At Winkler Pictures, Iwerks continued to work with Disney on the Alice Comedies as well as the creation of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. One of Iwerks's most long-lasting contributions to animation was a refined version of a sketch drawn by Disney that would later go on to become Mickey Mouse. Iwerks was responsible for much of the animation for the early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony cartoons, including Steamboat Willie, The Skeleton Dance and The Haunted House, before a falling out with Disney led to Iwerks's resignation from the studio in January 1930. Following his separation with Disney, Iwerks founded Animated Pictures and produced the Flip the Frog and Willie Whopper series as part of a contract between Celebrity Productions and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but the new studio failed to rival its competitors. An independent series of Cinecolor ComiColor Cartoons were also not successful in the long term. The studio was later reorganized in 1937. Subsequently, Iwerks directed two Looney Tunes cartoon shorts for Leon Schlesinger Productions and over a dozen Color Rhapsody cartoons for Screen Gems from his studio as contract work before joining Disney again in 1940. As head of Disney's Special Processes and Camera department, Iwerks developed visual effects processes on productions such as Song of the South (1946), Mary Poppins (1964), and even Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). He also adapted the xerography process to be able to photocopy animation pencil drawings onto animation cels and contributed technical solutions to Disney's WED Enterprises group (now Walt Disney Imagineering) for Disneyland, Walt Disney World, and 1964 World's Fair attractions. Iwerks had two children, Donald Warren and David Lee, with his wife Mildred Sarah Henderson. Iwerks died of a heart attack in Burbank, California, in 1971 at age 70. Iwerks was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 1989. His likeness has been featured in his granddaughter Leslie Iwerks' 1999 documentary The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story as well as the 2014 feature film Walt Before Mickey, in which he is portrayed by Armando Gutierrez. Iwerks received nominations for three Academy Awards, for which he won two. He also posthumously received the Winsor McCay Award at the 1978 Annie Awards and the Hall of Fame award at the 2017 Visual Effects Society Awards. Iwerks is considered one of the greatest animators of all time.