Yale Gracey (September 3, 1910 – September 5, 1983) was a

Disney Imagineer Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc., commonly referred to as Imagineering, is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construction of Disney theme parks and att ...

, writer, and layout artist for many Disney animated shorts, including classics such as ''

The Three Caballeros ''The Three Caballeros'' is a 1944 American live-action/animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film premiered in Mexico City on December 21, 1944. It was released in the United States on ...

'' and '' Fantasia''. Gracey joined the company in 1939 as a layout artist for ''

Pinocchio Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...

''. In the 1960s, he designed many of the special effects for the Pirates of the Caribbean and

Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansion is a dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland. The haunted house attraction features a ride-through tour in Omnimover vehicles called "Doom Buggies", and a walk-through show is displa ...

attractions at

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...

. Among these was a fire effect, developed for ''Pirates of the Caribbean'', which appeared so realistic that the Disneyland fire department wanted an emergency switch to turn it off in case of a real fire. The Haunted Mansion character Master Gracey was named in homage to him. Gracey retired from the company on October 4, 1975. On September 5, 1983, Gracey was shot and killed in Los Angeles by a burglar. His wife was injured in the attack. Gracey and his wife, Beverly, were staying overnight at their cabana at the Bel Air Bay Club, on Pacific Coast Highway in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of western Los Angeles. The shooting was reported at approximately 2:30 a.m. by another club member. A police spokesman indicated that Gracey and his wife were both asleep when an unknown intruder entered and shot them both, then fled onto the beach. A motive was not determined, and there were no suspects.UPI, 1983, Sept. 6, Executive Shot to Death at Exclusive Beach Club, ''The Montreal Gazette'', p. 105

Disney filmography

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* Walt Disney Animation Studios people Disney imagineers 1910 births 1983 deaths Deaths by firearm in California People murdered in Los Angeles American male writers 20th-century American writers American expatriates in China {{Disney-stub