Ted Sears

Edward Robert "Ted" Sears Jr. was an animator and story writer for Disney during its early years. As his writing partner, Winston Hibler, once put it, "Perhaps Ted's greatest talent was his own unique brand of humor. It was warm, gentle humor; there was never a barb in it. And his was the key, to Ted's whole personality. He was the kindest man I ever knew. He lived with laughter and without malice. He was generous in all things. His talents could be had for the asking. No job was too small, none too big. And this all adds up to the fact that through his talents and his personal virtues. Ted was able to achieve two of the goals he set for himself in life: he made good pictures and he made good friends."
Born in 1900, he spent most of his childhood in New York where he attended a trade school and became a sign painter to help support his family and later lettered title cards for silent movies, worked with trick photography, drew ads, and even made props for early two-reel comedies. He even came up with plot ideas and gags for silent film comic, Charlie Bowers. He eventually joined Max Fleischer's organization where he contributed story ideas as well as animation.
In 1931, Walt Disney hired Ted on a long term contract not as an animator but as a senior writer, (the head of Disney Story Department) and in the twenty-seven years that followed no one ever challenged his position. He was responsible for writing dialogue and story lines for virtually every important production the Disney Studio, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Bambi, Dumbo, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. He also co-wrote narration for many of the Disney nature films with Winston Hibler, and later did a number of the Disney TV shows.
As part of the Disney's company's original story department he is one of the men attributed in the creation of storyboarding now an industry standard for not just animated film but also live action.
Sears died in 1958 during which, he worked on the story for Sleeping Beauty which was released the following year. He was survived by his wife Violet, who passed in 1976, and his daughter, Cindy who was interviewed in regards to her father's role in Walt's goodwill tour of South America for the documentary, Walt & El Grupo.
==Filmography==
Year 	Film 	Position
1932 	Babes in the Woods 	Story - uncredited
1933 	Birds in the Spring 	Writer - uncredited
1933 	Three Little Pigs 	Writer - uncredited "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" lyricist
1933 	The Pied Piper 	Story - uncredited
1934 	The Big Bad Wolf 	Writer - uncredited
1935 	The Cookie Carnival 	Writer - uncredited
1935 	Music Land 	Writer - uncredited
1936 	Elmer Elephant 	Writer - uncredited
1936 	Mother Pluto 	Writer - uncredited
1937 	Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 	Story Adaptation
1940 	Pinocchio 	Story Adaptation
1941 	The Reluctant Dragon 	Screenplay
1942 	Saludos Amigos 	Story Research"Aquarela do Brasil" Writer
1944 	The Three Caballeros 	Story
1947 	Fun and Fancy Free 	Story
1948 	Melody Time 	Story
1948 	So Dear to My Heart 	Adaptation
1949 	The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad	Story"The Wind in the Willows" Writer
1950 	Cinderella 	Story
1950 	In Beaver Valley 	Screenplay
1951 	Alice in Wonderland 	StorySongwriter (uncredited): "Smoke the Blighter Out""You Are Old, Father William""AEIOU"
1951 	Nature's Half Acre 	Script
1952 	Water Birds 	Screenplay
1952 	The Olympic Elk 	Script
1953 	Peter Pan 	StoryLyrics: "Following the Leader" - uncredited
1953 	The Alaskan Eskimo 	Writer
1953 	The Living Desert 	Screenplay
1953 	Ben and Me 	Story Adaptation
1954 	The Vanishing Prairie 	Screenplay
1954 	Siam 	Writer
1954-1960	The Magical World of Disney 	Writer
1955 	The African Lion 	Writer
1956 	Sardinia 	Writer
1959 	Sleeping Beauty 	Additional StoryLyrics: "I Wonder" - uncredited(Posthumous release)
==Trivia==
*His sister-in-law, Irene, was the Disney family nurse for many years attending to both Walt's brother and mother
*Sears had initially provided the voice of the titular character in Pinocchio before the character was reimagined and child actor Dickie Jones was cast as the voice of the character instead.
*He appeared on-screen in the documentary South of the Border with Disney.
==Gallery==
Three Caballeros homer brightman ted sears roy williams.jpg|Sears with Roy Williams and Homer Brightman.
Walt disney story session Alice in Wonderland.jpg|From Right to left Erdman Penner, Walt Disney, Ted Sears, Winston Hibler
Ted sears in session with walt.jpg|Sears (left), Hibler (middle), Disney (right)
Disney staff 1931 (1).jpg|Standing from left: Edmond Seward, Frank Churchill, Otto Englander, Ben Sharpsteen, Bert Lewis, Gilles "Frenchy" de Tremaudan, Les Clark, Rudy Zamora, Wilfred Jackson, Jack King, Tom Palmer, Jack Cutting (behind Palmer), Johnny Cannon, Norman Ferguson, Webb SmithSeated, from left: David Hand, Sears, Dick Lundy, Burt Gillett, Walt Disney
Disney staff 1931 (2).jpg|1931; Standing from left: Smith, Seward, Englander, Zamora, Hand, Palmer, Cutting, W. Disney, Churchill, Cannon, SharpsteenSeated from left: King, Lundy, Sears, Ferguson, de Tremaudan, Jackson, Clark, Gillett, Lewis
Pinocchio story session.JPG|L-R: Sears, Otto Englander, Webb Smith in a story session for Pinocchio.
El grupo at the airfield.jpg|Left to Right; Hazel Sewell, William Cottrell, Sears, Lillian Disney, Walt Disney, Norman Ferguson and Frank Thomas.
Ted Sears and Wilfred Jackson working on Peter Pan 1953.jpg|Sears working on Peter Pan storyboards with Wilfred Jackson
Category:Males
Category:1900s births
Category:1950s deaths
Category:Deceased
Category:People from Massachusetts
Category:American people
Category:Writers
Category:Lyricists
Category:Songwriters
Category:Animators
Category:Silly Symphonies
Category:The Three Little Pigs
Category:Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Category:Pinocchio
Category:Fantasia
Category:Bambi
Category:Dumbo
Category:Saludos Amigos
Category:The Three Caballeros
Category:Melody Time
Category:The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Category:Cinderella
Category:Alice in Wonderland
Category:Peter Pan
Category:Sleeping Beauty
Category:True-Life Adventures
Category:Ben and Me
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios