So a sad animation bit for you today. As you might know, I did a few years stint at Disney Animation in 1998-2004. Over the years it's gone by several different names, back then it was "Walt Disney Feature Animation", today it's called "Walt Disney Animation Studios". Either way, these are the people that made 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs through 2007's Meet the Robinsons.

Yeah, a little bit of history with those people.

Anyway, yesterday Ollie Johnston passed away. He was an animator of quite some regard. His work spanned four decades and covered some of the most famous Disney characters ever. He shared with Frank Thomas the credit of Supervising Animator on the lead characters in in both Pinocchio and Bambi, he was the Directing Animator for the three fantastic animated sequences in Song of the South, with Thomas he was the Directing Animator for most of the characters in both the The Wind in the Willows and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segments of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, the Directing Animator of the Stepsisters in Cinderella, the Directing Animator of the Mr. Smee in Peter Pan, the Directing Animator of Lady, Jock and Trusty in Lady and the Tramp, with Thomas the Directing Animator for most of the three fairy characters in Sleeping Beauty, again with Thomas he was the Directing Animator for the two lead dogs in 101 Dalmatians, the Directing Animator of Merlin and Wart in The Sword in the Stone, the Directing Animator of Baloo, Bagheera, Mowgli, and The Girl in The Jungle Book and Directing Animator for Prince John, Sir Hiss, Robin Hood, Little John, Maid Marian in Robin Hood.

Johnston retired from animation in 1978 and was named a Disney Legend in 1989.

In 1995 Frank Thomas' son made a charming documentary about his father and Johnston's work together and their seventy year friendship called Frank and Ollie. If you have any interest in animation it's a great movie.

Anyway, Johnston was part of what Walt called his Nine Old Men - in reference to what Franklin Roosevelt called his Supreme Court Justices of the 1940s.

In fact, Johnston was the last of the Nine Old Men.

when I started at Disney in 1998 there were four left - Marc Davis (with whom I shared a birthday), Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.

Ollie was the last ... now there are none.

Sure, we have the Andreas Dejas, the Mark Henns, the Dale Baers, the Duncan Marjoribankses and the Glen Keanes.

But Ollie Johnston, he was the last of a kind.

But although he's gone, his characters live on.