Dale Oliver

Dale Elred Oliver was an American assistant animator at Disney, who often worked closely with Frank Thomas, cleaning and refining drawings, and sometimes with Eric Larson.
Oliver grew up on a east Kansas farm and studied art at Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas. He entered the US Army in March of 1942 and then entered the Army Air Corps Glider Pilot Program that summer. He went to the European Theater of Operations, (ETO), and was assigned to the 434th Troop Carrier Group. He participated in the airborne operations in Normandy (D-Day), Holland, and the Rhine River Crossing. While in the army, he sketched and painted art related to his time as a pilot.
After the war, Oliver began his career as a commercial illustrator, working for the Walt Disney Studio in the animation department in 1947. He contributed to animated films, like Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Rescuers, and The Fox and the Hound, where Wolfgang Reitherman has asked him to help animate after Frank Thomas left the production. Oliver also taught classes at a union for new talent in the industry.
After thirty-five years, he was forced to retire following a bad car accident which resulted him being in a coma for several days and the death of his fiancée. Despite this tragedy, he kept himself busy with sculpturing. He died of an aneurysm in 2003.
==Filmography==
Year	Film 	Position
1953	Peter Pan 	assistant animator - uncredited
1955	Lady and the Tramp 	assistant animator
1959	Sleeping Beauty 	assistant animator
1961	One Hundred and One Dalmatians	assistant animator
1963	The Sword in the Stone 	assistant animator - uncredited
1967	The Jungle Book 	assistant animator
1973	Robin Hood 	key assistant animator
1974	Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too	animator - uncredited
1977	The Rescuers 	key assistant animator
1981	The Fox and the Hound 	character animation
1990	The Rescuers Down Under 	animator - uncredited (early production)
==Gallery==
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:Animators
Category:American people
Category:People from Kansas
Category:1910s births
Category:2000s deaths
Category:Deceased
Category:Peter Pan
Category:Lady and the Tramp
Category:Sleeping Beauty
Category:101 Dalmatians
Category:The Sword in the Stone
Category:The Jungle Book
Category:Winnie the Pooh
Category:Robin Hood
Category:The Rescuers
Category:The Fox and the Hound
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios