Willis Pyle

Willis Acton Pyle (September 3, 1914 – June 2, 2016) was an American animator known for his work with Walt Disney Animation Studios, including Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), and Bambi (1942), as well as UPA's Mr. Magoo, where he co-created the iconic character, and the short film, Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950), which won an Academy Award for Animated Short Film in 1951. Pyle later enjoyed a long career as a freelance animator on such projects as the animated film, Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977), Halloween Is Grinch Night (1977), several Peanuts television specials. and Cathy's Valentine.

The son of a farmer, Willis Pyle was born on September 3, 1914, near Lebanon, Kansas. He was raised in a sod house in Colorado. Pyle's brother was actor Denver Pyle, who was best known for his starring role as Uncle Jesse on CBS television series, The Dukes of Hazzard, from 1979 until 1985. However, Pyle was not the nephew of, nor related to, journalist Ernie Pyle.

Pyle enrolled as an art student at the University of Colorado Boulder, while working as a commercial illustrator for Gano-Downs department store in Denver, when he found an employment poster for animators at Walt Disney Studios. Pyle left from Colorado in 1937 and relocated to Los Angeles and was initially hired by Disney as an office boy in 1937. His first feature film was Pinocchio in 1940, in which he worked as an assistant animator under Milt Kahl, one of Disney's Nine Old Men. In a 2010 interview with the Coloradan Alumni Magazine, explained how he animated Pinocchio, "The character had to act — raise its eyebrows, turn and jump and react to other characters. And the way you could do it was by looking at yourself in a mirror to see what that expression looked like." Pyle also worked as an assistant animator on Fantasia in 1940 and Bambi in 1942.

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