Don Griffith

Donald Alton "Don" Griffith was an American former art director and layout artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios for almost fifty years and also served as the head of the Layout Department at the studio for many years and the de facto Art Director from from the mid-1960s through the 1970s.
Griffith was born in Butte, Montana and moved with his mother and brother and sisters to Hollywood when he was a young boy after his father died. His mother ran a boarding house in Hollywood. He started working at Disney in 1937 at age 19 when the Studio was still on Hyperion. He started out as an inker and worked his way into doing background and layout work. He didn't have any training as an artist before he started working. It was also there that he met his wife, Katherine Lane, a secretary. One of his first assignments was being Ken Anderson's assistant during the production of Pinocchio. After the outbreak of WWII, Griffith join the Merchant Marines.
He returned to the studio where he worked as a layout artist in films, like Melody Time, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound.
Griffith and the other Disney animators lived by the adage, "He who dies with the most toys wins!" Each animator's office was usually littered with multiple toys which were played with often during the day. When Walt Disney opened Cal Arts, Don taught drawing classes there in the school's first few years. He retired from the company in 1984 while working on the Disney Afternoon shows: The Wuzzles and Adventures of the Gummi Bears.
He died on February 9, 1987 from kidney failure, six days after his 69th birthday.
==Filmography==
Year 	Film 	Position
1940 	Pinocchio 	assistant
1940 	Bone Trouble 	layout artist
1943 	Victory Through Air Power 	art direction: animation
1944 	Donald Duck and the Gorilla 	layout artist - uncredited
1945 	Tuberculosis 	layout artistadditional story - uncredited
1947 	Donald's Dilemma 	layout artist
1947 	Wide Open Spaces 	layout artist
1948 	Drip Dippy Donald 	layout artist
1948 	Donald's Dream Voice 	layout artist
1948 	Melody Time 	"Once Upon a Wintertime": layout artist
1948 	The Trial of Donald Duck 	layout artist
1949 	So Dear to My Heart 	layout artist
1949 	The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad	layout artist - uncredited
1950 	Cinderella 	layout artist
1951 	Alice in wonderland 	layout artist
1952 	Susie the Little Blue Coupe 	layout artist
1953 	Peter Pan 	layout artist
1955 	Lady and the Tramp 	layout artist
1955-1964	The Magical World of Disney 	layout artist
1959 	Sleeping Beauty 	layout artist
1961 	One Hundred and One Dalmatians 	layout artist
1961 	Donald and the Wheel 	layout artist
1963 	The Sword in the Stone 	layout artist
1964 	Mary Poppins 	background artist
1967 	The Jungle Book 	layout artist
1970 	The Aristocats 	layout artist
1971 	Bedknobs and Broomsticks 	layout artist
1973 	Robin Hood 	art director
1977 	The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh	layout artist:"Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree""Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day""Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too"
1977 	The Rescuers 	layout artistart director
1983 	The Fox and the Hound 	art director
1983 	Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore 	layout artist - uncredited
1983 	Mickey's Christmas Carol 	art directorstory adaptation
1985 	The Black Cauldron 	layout artistart director - uncredited
1985 	The Wuzzles 	layout artist - uncredited
1985-1987	Adventures of the Gummi Bears 	layout artist - uncredited
==Gallery==
Don griffith explaining.JPG
Disney12.jpg|From left to right: Dale Oliver, Basil Davidovich, Don Duckwall, Don Griffith, Bill Berg, Julius Svendsen, Eric Cleworth, Hal King, Ted Berman, John Lounsbery, and Ollie Johnston
Category:Males
Category:Deceased
Category:Artists
Category:Layout artists
Category:Illustrators
Category:1910s births
Category:1980s deaths
Category:People from Montana
Category:American people
Category:Donald Duck
Category:Melody Time
Category:So Dear to My Heart
Category:The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Category:Cinderella
Category:Alice in Wonderland
Category:Peter Pan
Category:Lady and the Tramp
Category:Sleeping Beauty
Category:101 Dalmatians
Category:The Sword in the Stone
Category:Mary Poppins
Category:The Jungle Book
Category:The Aristocats
Category:Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Category:Robin Hood
Category:The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Category:The Rescuers
Category:The Fox and the Hound
Category:The Black Cauldron
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios
Category:Mickey's Christmas Carol
Category:Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color
Category:The Wuzzles
Category:Adventures of the Gummi Bears