John Lasseter

**John Alan Lasseter** (/ˈlæsətər/; born January 12, 1957) is an American animator, film director, screenwriter, producer, voice actor and former chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar and Disneytoon Studios. He was also the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering.

Lasseter began his career as an animator with The Walt Disney Company. After being fired from Disney for promoting computer animation, he joined Lucasfilm, where he worked on the then-groundbreaking use of CGI animation. The Graphics Group of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs and became Pixar in 1986. Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer. He also directed *Toy Story* (1995), *A Bug's Life* (1998), *Toy Story 2* (1999), *Cars* (2006), and *Cars 2* (2011). From 2006 to 2018, Lasseter also oversaw all Walt Disney Animation Studios' (and its division Disneytoon Studios') films and associated projects as executive producer.

The films he has made have grossed more than $19 billion (USD), making him one of the most successful filmmakers of all time. Of the eight animated films that have grossed more than $1 billion, five of them are films executive produced by Lasseter. The films include *Toy Story 3* (2010), the first animated film to pass $1 billion, *Frozen* (2013), the 3rd highest-grossing animated film of all time, as well as *Zootopia* (2016), *Finding Dory* (2016), and *Incredibles 2* (2018).

He has won two Academy Awards, Best Animated Short Film (for *Tin Toy*) and a Special Achievement Award (for *Toy Story*).

In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month sabbatical from Pixar and Disney Animation after acknowledging what he called "missteps" in his behaviour with employees. According to various news outlets, Lasseter had a history of alleged sexual misconduct towards employees. In June 2018, Disney announced that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year when his contract expired but took on a consulting role until then. His final films as an executive producer were *Incredibles 2*, and *Ralph Breaks the Internet* (2018) for Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, respectively. He also received a story credit for *Toy Story 4* (2019).

On January 9, 2019, Skydance Animation hired Lasseter to head the company.

## Early years

Lasseter was born in Hollywood, California. His mother, Jewell Mae (née Risley; 1918–2005), was an art teacher at Bell Gardens High School, and his father, Paul Eual Lasseter (1924–2011), was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership.

Lasseter is a fraternal twin; his sister Johanna Lasseter-Curtis, who became a baker based in the Lake Tahoe area, is six minutes older.

Lasseter grew up in Whittier, California. His mother's profession contributed to his growing preoccupation with animation. He often drew cartoons during church services at the Church of Christ his family attended. As a child, Lasseter would race home from school to watch Chuck Jones cartoons on television. While in high school, he read *The Art of Animation* by Bob Thomas. The book covered Disney animation history and explored the making of Disney's 1959 film *Sleeping Beauty*, which made Lasseter want to animate himself. When he saw Disney's 1963 film *The Sword in the Stone*, he finally decided to become an animator.

Lasseter heard of a new character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts (often abbreviated as 'CalArts') and decided to follow his dream of becoming an animator. His mother further encouraged him to take up a career in animation, and in 1975 he enrolled as the second student (Jerry Rees was the first) in the CalArts Character Animation program created by Disney animators Jack Hannah and T. Hee. Three of Disney's Nine Old Men team of veteran animators—Eric Larson, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston— taught Lasseter and his classmates' future animators and directors like Brad Bird, John Musker, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, and Chris Buck. During his time there, he produced two animated shorts—*Lady and the Lamp* (1979) and *Nitemare* (1980)—which each won the student Academy Award for Animation.

While at CalArts, Lasseter first started working for the Walt Disney Company at Disneyland in Anaheim during summer breaks and got a job as a Jungle Cruise skipper to entertain captive audiences on the ride by learning comedy basics and comic timing.

## Career

### First years at Disney

After graduating in 1979, Disney hired Lasseter to animate at Walt Disney Productions mostly due to his success with *Lady and the Lamp*. The studio reviewed approximately 10,000 portfolios in the late 1970s in search of talent, then selected only about 150 candidates as apprentices, of which Disney kept on only about 45 permanently. In the fall of 1979, Disney animator Mel Shaw told the *Los Angeles Times* that "John's got an instinctive feel for character and movement and shows every indication of blossoming here at our studios ... In time, he'll make a fine contribution." At that same time, Lasseter worked on a sequence titled "The Emperor and the Nightingale" (based on *The Nightingale* by Hans Christian Andersen) for a Disney project called *Musicana*. *Musicana* was never released but eventually led to the development of *Fantasia 2000*.

However, Lasseter soon realized something was missing: after *101 Dalmatians*, which in his opinion was the film where Disney had reached its highest plateau, the studio had lost momentum, and many criticize them for often repeating itself without adding any new ideas or innovations. Between 1980 and 1981, he coincidentally came across some videotapes from one of the then-recent computer-graphics conferences, who showed some of the very beginnings of computer animation, primarily floating spheres and such, which he experienced as a revelation. But it wasn't until shortly after, when he was invited by his friends Jerry Rees and Bill Kroyer while working on *Mickey's Christmas Carol*, to come and see the first light cycle sequences for an upcoming film entitled *Tron*, featuring state-of-the-art computer-generated imagery (CGI), that he saw the massive potential of this new technology in animation. Up to that time, the studio had used a multiplane camera to add depth to its animation. Lasseter realized that Disney could use computers to make films with three-dimensional backgrounds where traditionally animated characters could interact to add a new level of visually stunning depth that had not been possible before. He knew adding dimension to animation had been a longtime dream of animators, going back to Walt Disney himself.

Later, he and Glen Keane talked about how great it would be to make an animated feature where the background was computer-animated. He showed Keane the book *The Brave Little Toaster* by Thomas Disch, which he thought would be the right candidate for the film. Keane agreed, but first, they decided to do a short test film to see how it worked out and chose *Where the Wild Things Are*, a decision based on the fact that Disney had considered producing a feature based on Maurice's works Sendak. Satisfied with the result, Lasseter, Keane, and executive Thomas L. Wilhite went on with the project, especially Lasseter, who dedicated himself to it, while Keane eventually went on to work with *The Great Mouse Detective*.

Lasseter and his colleagues unknowingly stepped on some of their direct superiors' toes by circumventing them in their enthusiasm to get the *Where the Wild Things Are* project into motion. Disney cancelled the project while being pitched to two of Lasseter's supervisors, animation administrator Ed Hansen and head of Disney studios, Ron W. Miller, due to lack of perceived cost benefits for the mix of traditional and computer animation. A few minutes after the meeting, Lasseter was summoned by Hansen to his office. As Lasseter recalled, Hansen told him, "Well, John, your project is now complete, so your employment with the Disney Studios is now terminated." Wilhite, who was part of Disney's live-action group and therefore had no obligations to the animation studio, managed to keep Lasseter around temporarily until the *Wild Things* test project was complete in January 1984. Still, with the understanding, there would be no further work for Lasseter at Disney Animation. *The Brave Little Toaster* would later become a 2D animated feature film directed by one of Lasseter's friends, Jerry Rees, and co-produced by Wilhite (who had, by then, left to start Hyperion Pictures), and some of the staff of Pixar would be involved in the film alongside Lasseter.

### Lucasfilm/Pixar

While putting together a crew for the planned feature, Lasseter had made some contacts in the computer industry, including Alvy Ray Smith and Ed Catmull at Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Group. After being fired, and feeling glum knowing his employment with Disney was to end shortly, Lasseter visited a computer graphics conference in November 1983 at the *Queen Mary* in Long Beach, where he met and talked to Catmull again. Catmull inquired about *The Brave Little Toaster*, which Lasseter explained that Disney shelved. From his experience at Lucasfilm, Catmull assumed Lasseter was simply between projects since Hollywood studios have traditionally laid off employees when they lack enough productions to keep them busy. Still devastated at being forced out of the only company he had ever wanted to work for, Lasseter could not find the strength to tell Catmull that Disney fired him.

Catmull later telephoned Smith that day and mentioned that Lasseter was not working at Disney. Smith told Catmull to put down the phone and hire Lasseter right now. Lasseter agreed instantly to work freelance with Catmull and his colleagues and joined them for a week of December 1983 on a project that resulted in their first computer-animated short: *The Adventures of André & Wally B.* Because Catmull was not allowed to hire animators, he became the "Interface Designer"; "Nobody knew what that was but they didn't question it in budget meetings." Lasseter spent a lot of time at Lucasfilm in the San Francisco Bay Area in the spring of 1984, where he worked together closely with Catmull and his team of computer science researchers. Lasseter learned how to use some of their software, and in turn, he taught computer scientists about filmmaking, animation, and art. The short turned out to be more revolutionary than Lasseter first had visualized before he came to Lucasfilm. His original idea had been to create only the backgrounds on computers, but everything was computer-animated in the final short, including the characters.

After they presented the short CGI film at SIGGRAPH in the summer of 1984, Lasseter returned to Los Angeles with the hope of directing *The Brave Little Toaster* at Hyperion Pictures. He soon learned that funding had fallen through and called Catmull with the bad news. Catmull called back with a job offer, and Lasseter joined Lucasfilm as a full-time employee in October 1984 and moved to the Bay Area. After that, he worked with ILM on *Young Sherlock Holmes's special effects*, where he made the first fully computer-generated photorealistic animated character, a knight composed of elements from a stained glass window. This effect was the first CG character to be scanned and painted directly onto film using a laser. Lasseter and Catmull's collaboration, which has lasted over thirty years, would ultimately result in *Toy Story* (1995), the first-ever computer-animated feature film.

Due to George Lucas's financially crippling divorce, he sold Lucasfilm Computer Graphics, renamed the Pixar Graphics Group, founded by Smith and Catmull, with Lasseter as one of the founding employees. It became a separate corporation with Steve Jobs as its majority shareholder in 1986. Over the next ten years, Pixar evolved from a computer company that did animation work on the side into an animation studio. Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar's films and associated projects as executive producer. As well as *Toy Story*, he also personally directed *A Bug's Life* (1998), *Toy Story 2* (1999), *Cars* (2006), and *Cars 2* (2011).

He has won two Academy Awards for Animated Short Film (*Tin Toy*) and a Special Achievement Award (*Toy Story*). Lasseter has been nominated on four other occasions—in the category of Animated Feature, for both *Monsters, Inc.* (2001) and *Cars*, in the Original Screenplay category for *Toy Story* and the Animated Short category for *Luxo, Jr.* (1986)—while Terry Gilliam selected the short *Knick Knack* (1989) as one of the ten best-animated films of all time. In 2008, he was honoured with the Winsor McCay Award, the lifetime achievement award for animators.

### Return to Disney

Disney announced that it would be purchasing Pixar in January 2006, and Lasseter was named the chief creative officer of both Pixar and Walt Disney Feature Animation, the latter of which he renamed Walt Disney Animation Studios. Lasseter was also named principal creative adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, where he helped design attractions for Disney Parks, oversaw all of Walt Disney Animation Studios' films and associated projects as executive producer, and reported directly to Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger, bypassing Disney's studio and theme park executives. He also received green-light power on films with Roy E. Disney's consent.

In December 2006, Lasseter announced that Disney Animation would start producing animated shorts – 2D, CGI, or a combination of both – that would be released theatrically. Lasseter said he sees this medium as an excellent way to train and discover new talent in the company and a testing ground for new techniques and ideas.

In June 2007, Disney gave Catmull and Lasseter control of Disneytoon Studios, a division of Walt Disney Animation Studios housed in Glendale's separate facility. As president and chief creative officer, respectively, they have supervised three independent studios for Disney, each with its production pipeline: Pixar, Disney Animation, and Disneytoon. While Disney Animation and Disneytoon are in the Los Angeles area, Pixar is over 350 miles (563 kilometres) northwest in the Bay Area, where Catmull and Lasseter both live. Accordingly, they appointed a general manager for each studio to manage day-to-day business affairs, then established a routine of spending at least two days per week (usually Tuesdays and Wednesdays) in Southern California.

Lasseter is a close friend and admirer of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, whom he first met when TMS Entertainment sent a delegation of animators to the Disney studio in 1981 and showed a clip from Miyazaki's first feature film, *The Castle of Cagliostro* (1979). In 1985, Lasseter insisted on showing that clip and other examples of Miyazaki's work after dinner to a woman he had just met (who would become his wife), visited Miyazaki during his first trip to Japan in 1987, and saw drawings for *My Neighbor Totoro* (1988). After Lasseter became a successful director and producer at Pixar, he served as executive producer on several of Miyazaki's films for their release in the United States and oversaw the translation and dubbing of their English language soundtracks. The gentle forest spirit Totoro from *My Neighbor Totoro* makes an appearance as a plush toy in *Toy Story 3* (2010).

Lasseter is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served nine consecutive years on its board of governors from 2005 to 2014 when he had to relinquish his seat due to term limits. His last position on the board was as first vice president.

Lasseter received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood in 2011, located at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard.

### Allegations of sexual misconduct and exit from Disney/Pixar

In November 2017, Lasseter took a six-month leave of absence after acknowledging workplace sexual misconduct allegations that he described as "missteps" with employees in a memo to staff. The alleged misconduct towards employees included "grabbing, kissing, [and] making comments about physical attributes." The alleged conduct became so well known that, according to *Variety*, at various times, Pixar had "minders who were tasked with reining in his impulses."

In June 2018, Disney announced that Lasseter was leaving the company at the end of the year, taking a consulting role until then.

### Skydance Animation

On January 9, 2019, Skydance Animation hired Lasseter to head the company, producing animated films with Paramount Animation and Ilion Animation Studios. In a statement, Lasseter expressed his gratitude for the opportunity, adding, "I have spent the last year away from the industry in deep reflection, learning how my actions unintentionally made colleagues uncomfortable, which I deeply regret and apologize for. It has been humbling, but I believe it will make me a better leader."

During a meeting at Skydance that same month, Lasseter expressed regret over his actions at Disney and Pixar. Lasseter said, "[he] will continue to work every day for the rest of [his] life to prove [...] that [he has] grown and learned". An investigation conducted before his hiring found that no previous claims of sexual assault, propositioning, or many filed harassment against Lasseter, and "[...] there were no findings of secret settlements by Disney or Lasseter to any parties asking for a settlement."

## Personal life

Lasseter lives in Glen Ellen, California, with his wife Nancy, a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, whom he met at a computer graphics conference in San Francisco in 1985. Nancy majored in computer graphics applications, and for a short time was a stay at home mother and worked as a computer graphics engineer at Apple Computer. They married in 1988 and have four sons together, and Nancy's son from a previous relationship, born between 1979/1980 and 1997.

The Lasseters own Lasseter Family Winery in Glen Ellen, California. The property includes a narrow-gauge railroad named the Justi Creek Railway (for the "Marie E.," the locomotive Lasseter purchased from Ollie Johnston) approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) long, including a train station and water tower Lasseter purchased from former Disney animator Ward Kimball. Their residence has a swimming pool with a lazy river that runs through a cave. Lasseter owns a collection of more than 1,000 Hawaiian shirts and wears one every day. Lasseter also inherited his late father's passion for cars; besides having directed two films about them, he watches auto races at Sonoma Raceway near his home and collects classic cars, of which one of his favourites is his black 1952 Jaguar XK120.

On May 2, 2009, Lasseter received an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University, where he delivered the commencement address.

When he left Disney and Pixar, Lasseter began working with a coach and therapist for unconscious bias training.

His influences include Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Frank Capra, Hayao Miyazaki, and Preston Sturges. Lasseter's favourite film is Walt Disney's *Dumbo*.

## See also

* A113
* List of Pixar films
* List of Pixar shorts