Ken O'Brien

Kenneth John "Ken" O'Brien was an American animator, who was hired by March 1961 as a supervising animator at Arnold Gillespie's Quartet Films. Dan Gordon left Hanna-Barbera at the same time to work for the company. O'Brien had been at Disney for a number of years and was an animator on some of the most attractive cartoons ever produced by Walter Lantz (with his buddy, Fred Moore in the late '40s). He animated on the stylish John Sutherland propaganda short, "Destination Earth" (1956), and spent some thankless years toiling on dreck, such as the TV Magoos (he joined UPA in August 1960) and "He-Man". He also worked on animatronics in the mid-'60s at WED and taught at Cal Arts. O'Brien was from Butte, Montana, spent some teenaged years in Seattle, and was supporting his widowed mother on a Disney salary by 1940.
His work for Disney included character animation on Pinocchio, Bambi, Make Mine Music, Song of the South, the Bongo segment of Fun and Fancy Free, the Pecos Bill segment of Melody Time, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Donald's Diary, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, the ABC Afterschool Specials episode "The Last of the Curlews", Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, and the ABC Weekend Specials episodes "The Puppy's Great Adventure", "The Puppy's Amazing Rescue", and "P.J. Funnybunny".
He died January 17, 1990, at age 74.
==Filmography==
Year	Film 	Position
1937	The Old Mill 	in-between artist - uncredited
1940	Pinocchio 	assistant animator - uncredited
1940	Fantasia 	assistant animator - segments: "The Nutcracker Suite""The Pastoral Symphony" - uncredited
1942	Bambi 	animator
1944	The Three Caballeros 	animator - uncredited
1946	Make Mine Music 	animator
1946	Squatter's Rights 	animator - uncredited
1946	Song of the South 	animator
1947	Fun and Fancy Free 	character animator: "Bongo"
1948	Melody Time 	character animator)"Pecos Bill" - animator
1949	The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad	animator - uncredited
1949	Toy Tinkers 	animator - uncredited
1950	Cinderella 	character animator
1951	Alice in Wonderland 	animator - uncredited
1953	Peter Pan 	character animator
1954	Donald's Diary 	animator
1955	Lady and the Tramp 	character animatordirecting animator - uncredited
1959	Sleeping Beauty 	character animator
1961	Aquamania 	animator - uncredited
1970	The Aristocats 	animator - uncredited
1973	Robin Hood 	animator - uncredited
1977	The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh	animator - uncredited
1983	Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore 	animator
==Gallery==
WEDCrew.0.jpg|A 1965 group photograph of Disney artists in the WED parking lot in Glendale, California, from left to right: Herbert Ryman, Ken O'Brien, Collin Campbell, Marc Davis, Al Bertino, Wathel Rogers, Mary Blair, T. Hee, Blaine Gibson, X. Atencio, Claude Coats, and Yale Gracey.
===Character gallery===
Bongo-Profile-Image-3.png|Bongo the Bear
Lulubelle-Profile-Image3.png|Lulubelle
Melody Time Pecos Bill Ma Coyote.jpeg|Mama Coyote
Profile - Peter Pan.jpeg|Peter Pan
Profile - Tiger Lily.jpeg|Tiger Lily
Profile - Lady.jpeg|Lady
Profile - Prince Phillip.png|Prince Phillip
Profile - Aurora.jpeg|Aurora
Category:1910s births
Category:1990s deaths
Category:Males
Category:Deceased
Category:Animators
Category:People from Montana
Category:Pinocchio
Category:Bambi
Category:Make Mine Music
Category:Song of the South
Category:Fun and Fancy Free
Category:Melody Time
Category:The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Category:Cinderella
Category:Alice in Wonderland
Category:Peter Pan
Category:Donald Duck
Category:Lady and the Tramp
Category:Sleeping Beauty
Category:Winnie the Pooh
Category:The Aristocats
Category:Robin Hood
Category:American people
Category:Silly Symphonies
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios