Frank Thomas

Franklin Rosborough "Frank" Thomas was an American animator. He was one of Walt Disney's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men.
Born in Fresno, California, Frank Thomas attended Stanford University, where he worked on campus humor magazine The Stanford Chaparral with Ollie Johnston. After graduating from Stanford, he attended Chouinard Art Institute, then joined The Walt Disney Company on September 24, 1934, as employee number 224. There he animated dozens of feature films and shorts, and also was a member of the Dixieland band Firehouse Five Plus Two, playing the piano.
His work in animated cartoon shorts included Brave Little Tailor, in which he animated scenes of Mickey Mouse and the king; Mickey and the bear in The Pointer, and German dialogue scenes in the World War II propaganda short Education for Death (shortly before Thomas enlisted in the Air Force).
In feature films, among the characters and scenes, Thomas animated were the dwarfs crying over Snow White's "dead" body; Pinocchio singing and dancing at the marionette theatre, Bambi and Thumper having fun on the ice; Lady and the Tramp eating spaghetti on their date in Lady and the Tramp; Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty; Merlin and Arthur as squirrels, and the "wizard's duel" between Merlin and Madam Mim in The Sword in the Stone (in which he was paired with animator Milt Kahl to great effect); King Louie in The Jungle Book (the song number "I Wanna Be Like You" featuring King Louie and Baloo the Bear dancing, which re-teamed him with Kahl); the dancing penguins in Mary Poppins; and Winnie the Pooh and Piglet in the Winnie the Pooh featurettes. He was also a directing animator for several memorable villains, including the evil stepmother Lady Tremaine in Cinderella, Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, and Aunt Sarah in Lady and the Tramp and other characters in The Fox and the Hound.
He retired from Disney on January 31, 1978.
Thomas co-authored with fellow Disney legend Ollie Johnston on the comprehensive book The Illusion of Life, first published by Abbeville Press in 1981. Regarded as the definitive resource book on traditional hand-drawn character animation (particularly in the Disney style), the book has been republished numerous times and is widely considered "the bible" among character animators. The book summarized the Disney approach to animation through the so-called 12 basic principles of animation.
In a likely reference to the book, the Adventures of the Gummi Bears episode "Light Makes Right" contains a scene featuring the children's book Tall Tales of The Gummi Bear, which contains a page with the words "Two of Gummi's famous Nine Old Bears, Frank and Ollie", honoring both animators with a blink-and-you-miss-it inside joke.
Thomas and Johnston were also profiled in the 1995 documentary Frank and Ollie, which screened at the 20th Toronto International Film Festival, directed by Thomas's son, Theodore Thomas. The film profiled their careers, private lives, and the personal friendship between the two men.
Thomas' last appearance in an animated film before his death was in The Incredibles (directed by Brad Bird), although he voiced a character, rather than animating one. Frank and his friend and colleague Ollie Johnston voiced and were caricatured as two old men saying "That's old school..." "Yeah, no school like the old school." The pair had previously been heard, and caricatured, as the two train engineers in Bird's The Iron Giant. Three days after his 92nd birthday, Frank Thomas died in Flintridge, California.
The 2001 biography Walt Disney's Nine Old Men & The Art of Animation by John Canemaker (ISBN 0-7868-6496-6) chronicles Thomas' life.
On the Animation Podcast, Disney director John Musker discussed Frank Thomas, and mentioned that at one time, fellow animation great Chuck Jones had christened Thomas the "Laurence Olivier of animators".
==Characters animated by Thomas==
*Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Dwarfs crying over Snow White's death body
*Pinocchio: Pinocchio
*Bambi: Bambi
*The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad: J. Thaddeus Toad, Cyril Proudbottom, Water Rat, Mole, Brom Bones
*Cinderella: Lady Tremaine
*Alice in Wonderland: Queen of Hearts
*Peter Pan: Captain Hook
*Lady and the Tramp: Aunt Sarah, Lady and the Tramp eating spaghetti on their date
*Sleeping Beauty: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather
*The Sword in the Stone: Girl Squirrel, Merlin, Madam Mim
*Mary Poppins: Penguins Waiters
*The Jungle Book: King Louie, Baloo, Mowgli, Kaa
*The Aristocats: Thomas O'Malley, Edgar Balthazar, Abigail and Amelia Gabble, Napoleon and Lafayette
*The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: Winnie the Pooh, Piglet
*The Rescuers: Bernard, Miss Bianca, Brutus and Nero
*The Fox and the Hound: Copper
==Gallery==
===Known Artwork===
Snowwhite-disneyscreencaps com-13603.jpg|The scene where the Seven Dwarfs are crying for Snow White laying on the bed after she was poisoned by the Poisoned Apple.
1938-tailleur-3.jpg|Mickey Mouse
Pinocchionotgettibgit.jpg|Pinocchio
32248bambi2 1.jpg|Bambi
Profile - J. Thaddeus Toad.jpg|J. Thaddeus Toad
Iceraichabodmrtoad0612.jpg|Cyril Proudbottom
Iceraichabodmrtoad0660.jpg|Water Rat
Iceraichabodmrtoad0429.jpg|Mole
Profile - Brom Bones.jpg|Brom Bones
LadyTremaine.jpg|Lady Tremaine
Alice-in-wonderland-disneyscreencaps.com-780.jpg|The Doorknob
QH1.jpg|Queen of Hearts
Peterpan-disneyscreencaps-2106.jpg|Captain Hook
Tramp-disneyscreencaps com-3459.jpg|Aunt Sarah
Tramp-disneyscreencaps com-5220.jpg|Lady and Tramp
Profile - Three Good Faries.png|Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather
Sword-disneyscreencaps com-4474.jpg|Girl Squirrel
Sword-disneyscreencaps com-7331.jpg|Merlin and Madam Mim
Marypoppins-disneyscreencaps com-5403.jpg|Penguin Waiters
Profile - Mowgli.jpeg|Mowgli
Profile - Kaa.jpeg|Kaa
Junglebook-disneyscreencaps com-3952.jpg|Baloo and King Louie
Winniethepooh-disneyscreencaps com-3434.jpg|Winnie the Pooh and Piglet
Aristocats-disneyscreencaps com-8481.jpg|Thomas O'Malley
Aristocats-disneyscreencaps com-2003.jpg|Napoleon and Lafayette
Abigail and Amelia Gabble.jpg|Abigail and Amelia Gabble
Aristocats-disneyscreencaps.com-1207.jpg|Edgar
Tumblr nahiehIX591r3jmn6o1 1280.png|Bernard and Miss Bianca
Rescuers-disneyscreencaps com-4689.jpg|Brutus and Nero
Profile - Copper.png|Copper
===Miscellaneous===
El grupo at the airfield.jpg|L-R: Hazel Sewell, William Cottrell, Ted Sears, Lillian Disney, Walt Disney, Norman Ferguson and Thomas.
Cavalcade of Songs writing session.JPG|L-R: Pinto Colvig, John Sibley, Erdman Penner, Thomas (seated), W. Disney, Ward Kimball.
StoryofDogs miltKahl6.jpg|Thomas drawing Lady in "A Story of Dogs."
1957-trucs-metiers-28.jpg|Thomas in "Tricks of Our Trade".
Frank thomas interview 2.JPG|Thomas in Bambi: The Magic Behind the Masterpiece.
Frank thomas interview.jpg|Thomas in You Can Fly!: The Making of Peter Pan.
Frank thomas interview 3.JPG
Frank thomas interview 4.JPG
Frank thomas interview 5.JPG|Thomas in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: The Story Behind the Masterpiece.
Frank thomas interview 6.JPG|Thomas in Cinderella: The Making of a Masterpiece.
The Fantasia Legacy frank thomas.JPG|Thomas in The Fantasia Legacy: The Concert Feature.
Frank and ollie working 1.JPG
StarlogSW5.jpg|Thomas and Ollie Johnston animating Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty.
Ollie and frank.JPG
Tumblr ndxmlz8qru1qhcrb0o1 1280.jpg
Iron-giant-disneyscreencaps.com-3232.jpg|Frank's cameo in The Iron Giant.
Incredibles-disneyscreencaps.com-12140.jpg|Frank and Ollie's cameo in The Incredibles.
==Books (all with Johnston)==
*The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation 
*Too Funny For Words: Disney's Greatest Sight Gags
*The Disney Villain (ISBN 1-56282-792-8)
*Bambi: The Story and the Film, accompanied by a flip book
==References==
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Category:Animators
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