Joe Grant

Joe Grant (May 15, 1908 - May 9, 2005) was an American animator, writer and illustrator. He worked for Walt Disney between 1933 and 1949 and again from 1989 until his death just a few days before his 97th birthday.

Joe Grant was born at 1908 in New York City. After school, he began his career as a caricaturist. In 1933, he was hired by Disney for the Mickey Mouse short movie Mickey's Gala Premiere. In the next years, he, Albert Hurter, Dick Huemer and Fred Moore were the studios' most important character animator. He created the witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Grant and Huemer created books for Fantasia and Dumbo. Later, he was the head of the "Character Animation Department" at Disney. This department was closed in 1949 and Grant left Disney.

40 years later, in 1989, Grant began working for Disney again. He created characters and sketches for Disney's Beauty and the Beast, (1991). The movie was the first animated movie which was nominated for the Academy Award for "Best Picture". He was the only person who worked on Fantasia (1940) and Fantasia 2000.

In 2005, his animation short movie Lorenzo was nominated for an Academy Award. Just a few weeks later, Joe Grant died while working with his drawing board at the age of 96 in Glendale, California.

Category:1908 births
Category:2005 deaths
Category:American animators
Category:Disney animators
Category:Writers from New York City
Category:American illustrators