Tony Anselmo

Tony Anselmo is an American voice actor and animator, who has worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios since 1980. After Clarence Nash's death in 1985, Anselmo succeeded him as the voice of Donald Duck, having been apprenticed by Nash for the role during the last three years of the former's life. Anselmo's first performance as Donald was on a television special titled DTV Valentine (1986). Since then, Anselmo has voiced Donald in over thousands of projects, including television, feature films, theme parks, and consumer products.
==Background==
===Early life===
Anselmo was born on February 18, 1960 in Salt Lake City, Utah. His grandfather emigrated from Italy to work in the Bingham Canyon Mine. At the age of four, Anselmo saw his first movie Mary Poppins and was left mesmerized by the experience. From that experience, he decided that he wanted to work for Disney.
At the age of seven, Anselmo and his family moved to Sunnyvale, California, where he studied animation from the Preston Blair art book entitled Advanced Animation. Anselmo built his own animation light table and began drawing and filming animation at home with a .
He attended Marian A. Peterson High School in Sunnyvale, and showed a natural gift for draftsmanship and art. He corresponded regularly with Disney Legends, Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Eric Larson, and Milt Kahl. Ollie, in particular, wrote a lot to Anselmo and would send him drawings, and advised him to learn quick sketch, life drawing, acting, and design. Anselmo applied this advice attending night art classes at local colleges, and joined the local community theater.
He eventually began to discover another talent: doing voices. He liked to imitate the teachers and celebrities. Thanks to a recommendation from his Disney animation correspondents, Anselmo was able to attend California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) on a Disney Family Fellowship. The Disney family's support was a great encouragement for him to continue to pursue his dream.
In the fall of 1978, Anselmo began his studies in the Character Animation Department at CalArts. The head of the department Jack Hannah was the director of the Donald Duck unit under Walt Disney. Anselmo's other teachers included Disney layout artist Ken O'Connor, Disney caricaturist T. Hee, and legendary design professor Bill Moore.
The school had a very close connection with the Disney Studio, and its students' work was reviewed annually by Disney executives. Anselmo was selected to transfer to the Studio after his second year. On September 1, 1980, Anselmo reported for duty in the animation department of Walt Disney Productions.
===Career===
At the Disney Studio, Anselmo began a more immersive study in Disney character animation. Anselmo explains: "Ron Miller had just set up a program called the Disney School of Animation on the lot with Don Hahn, to train new artists in carrying on Walt's traditions in character animation. We weren't even in production. We were being paid to animate tests with Eric Larson, studying life drawing with Walt Stanchfield, and learning even more than we had at CalArts. That hasn't happened since. I was honored to be a part of that. We were assigned Disney/Kem Weber animation desks, and Eric would hand out animation tests to us. We'd animate a scene, bring it back to Eric, he'd 'plus' it, showing us how it was done. He was incredibly patient and generous with his time."
Anselmo contributed to the animation of the 20 Disney animated features, including The Black Cauldron (1985), The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Tarzan (1999), and The Emperor's New Groove (2000).
During Anselmo's earliest days at Disney, he was befriended by Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck. Their relationship began casually, Anselmo was curious about the voice because Donald Duck was one voice that he couldn't do. He asked Nash how to do it, and it took him a long time to perfect it. Through their informal training in Donald's dialogue and personality, Nash and Anselmo continued to work and socialize. Not knowing that Nash had leukemia, Anselmo never suspected Nash had a larger motive behind the training. Anselmo states, "I think, in hindsight, one of the reasons Clarence spent so much time working with me on Donald's voice and personality before mentioning his plans for succession is that he wanted to make absolutely sure I would do that legacy justice with loyalty before telling me." When Nash died on February 20, 1985, Anselmo inherited the role of Donald Duck just as Nash had arranged. Anselmo was able to consult his mentor Jack Hannah with questions on Donald's idiosyncrasies until Jack's passing in June of 1994.
Anselmo's first performance as Donald was on the television program DTV Valentine (1986), his first film was Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). Anselmo also shared voice-over duties with Russi Taylor for Huey, Dewey, and Louie. He also voiced Daisy and Huey, Dewey, and Louie (whom he would later also voice in Mickey Mouse Works, House of Mouse, and Have a Laugh!) in Down and Out with Donald Duck in 1987 (while Taylor voiced the nephews in DuckTales, Mickey's Once, and Twice Upon a Christmas, Mickey's Speedway USA, and the DuckTales: Remastered video game in 2013). He also lent his voice to minor characters in The Great Mouse Detective, and contributed various other incidental voices throughout all his series.
Anselmo provided Donald's voice for the Kingdom Hearts series, which features Donald Duck as one of the main characters. He also provided the voice of Donald in the video game Kinect: Disneyland Adventures in 2011. 
Anselmo has been honored with several awards and nominations. He was a winner of the 2014 BTVA Television Voice Acting Award for Best Vocal Ensemble in a Television Series - Children's/Educational for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, as well as the BTVA Video Game Voice Acting Award for Best Vocal Ensemble in a Video Game - Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. 
In September 2009, Anselmo was officially named a Disney Legend. 
Anselmo began collecting Disney objects and ephemera at an early age and is known for his comprehensive collection of Disney posters relating to the works of Walt Disney. This expertise resulted in a 2002 art book entitled The Disney Poster Book featuring the Collection of Tony Anselmo. Anselmo's collection was loaned for many exhibits at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco in gratitude for his Disney family benefactors scholarship to CalArts.
==Roles==
Donald-duck.png|Donald Duck(1985–present)
May166.gif|Daisy Duck(Down and Out with Donald Duck)
11-11-08-donald-mouseworks.jpg|Huey, Dewey, and Louie(1987, 1989, 1999–2002, 2012)
Thug-3-the-great-mouse-detective-33.6.jpg|Thug 3(The Great Mouse Detective)
Mjamlja.jpg|The Garbled One(DuckTales)
==Animation Work Gallery==
Wardrobe-(Beauty and the Beast).jpg|Wardrobe
Aladdin-disneyscreencaps.com-1510.jpg|Jasmine
Lion-king-disneyscreencaps.com-1423.jpg|Young Simba
Pocahontas-disneyscreencaps.com-1068.jpg|Flit
Hunchback-of-the-notre-dame-disneyscreencaps.com-8259.jpg|Gypsies
Hunchback-of-the-notre-dame-disneyscreencaps.com-188.jpg|Frollo's soldiers
Tarzan-disneyscreencaps.com-3865.jpg|Archimedes Q. Porter
Emperors-new-groove-disneyscreencaps.com-8455.jpg|Pacha
Treasure-planet-disneyscreencaps.com-847.jpg|Sarah Hawkins
==Gallery==
Tony Anselmo with Donald Duck.jpg|Tony Anselmo with Donald Duck.
Tony with Donald in his outfit from Quack Pack.jpeg|Tony Anselmo with Donald Duck in his outfit from Quack Pack.
4Voices.jpg|Tony Anselmo with Wayne Allwine, Russi Taylor and Bill Farmer.
Tony Anselmo with Donald Duck.png|Tony Anselmo with Donald Duck.
Ollie-I-and-Frank.jpg|Tony Anselmo with animation mentors Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas.
Clarence-Tony.jpg|Wayne Allwine, Clarence Nash, and Tony Anselmo's first public performance of Donald Duck's voice under Nash's supervision.
Jack-Hannah-Me-Donald.jpg|Tony Anselmo with mentor Jack Hannah, Walt Disney's director of Donald Duck Unit.
(25)-Roy-E-Disney-Voices.jpg|Roy E. Disney with the folks he made official voices. Donald Duck (Tony Anselmo), Goofy (Bill Farmer), Minnie (Russi Taylor), and Mickey (Wayne Allwine).
Tony Anselmo with Bill Farmer.jpg|Tony Anselmo with Bill Farmer at the 2010 Annie Awards.
LegendsPlaza1.jpg|Tony Anselmo's Disney Legend handprints.
Tony Anselmo DuckTales Premiere.jpg|Tony Anselmo with Jennifer Jo Klocki at the premiere party for the DuckTales reboot.
90+Years+Disney+Animation+Celebration+NdUHwR47OlXx.jpg|Tony Anselmo with Russi Taylor at an event.
1180w-600h 091122 Character Voices 01.jpg|Tony Anselmo with Rick Dempsey, Jim Cummings, Bill Farmer, and Bret Iwan at the D23 Expo 2022.
==Trivia ==
*Anselmo is the first voice actor in the DuckTales reboot series to reprise his role from the original 1987 series, followed by Corey Burton.
*He is also the first animator to animate his own voice; he both voiced and animated Donald Duck in Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, Funny, You Don't Look 200, Once Upon a Studio and the 60th Annual Academy Awards in 1988. https://www.facebook.com/tony.anselmo.12/posts/pfbid02zznmSAVcASn9Z1AyguraHLz5VcQJiCCNWgu3WqYnU5Dtuj9ZkNfS4BUQBeYpVukzl
*Anselmo uses the same ribbon mic that Clarence Nash used. 
*Anselmo explained that he can't reveal how Donald's voice is done, but it isn't done by squeezing air through your cheek like the character Yakky Doodle.
==References==
==External links==
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