Original: Walt Disney jokingly called this group of animators his '' Nine Old Men , '' referring to Franklin D. Roosevelt 's dismissive description of the nine justices of the US Supreme Court , even though the animators were in their thirties and forties at the time .
Simplified: John Lounsbery ( March 9 , 1911 - February 13 , 1976 ) started in 1935 and , working with the name Norm Fergy Ferguson , quickly became a star animator .