Arthur Christopher Stevens (May 1, 1915 – May 22, 2007) was an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

, director and producer for

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

Career

Art Stevens was an animator at Walt Disney Productions during the

Golden Age of American Animation The golden age of American animation was a period that began with the popularization of Sound film, sound synchronized cartoons in 1928 and gradually ended in the 1960s when theatrical animated shorts started to lose popularity to the newer medi ...

. Stevens began his career

inbetweening Inbetweening, also known as tweening, is a process in animation that involves creating intermediate frames, called inbetweens, between two keyframes. The intended result is to create the illusion of movement by smoothly transitioning one image int ...

on the 1940 film '' Fantasia''. After doing in-between work on several films, he received his first screen credit in 1953 as a character animator on ''

Peter Pan Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythical ...

''. During his career, Stevens contributed to the storyboards and animation in many Disney cartoon shorts and feature films including

Ward Kimball Ward Walrath Kimball (March 4, 1914 – July 8, 2002) was an American animator employed by Walt Disney Animation Studios. He was part of Walt Disney's main team of animators, known collectively as Disney's Nine Old Men. His films have been honor ...

's critically acclaimed 1950s television documentaries ''

Man in Space "Man in Space" is an episode of the American television series ''Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and th ...

'', '' Man and the Moon'' and '' Mars and Beyond''. Stevens was also an animator on the Oscar-winning shorts '' Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom'' (1953) and '' It's Tough to Be a Bird'' (1969). In 1977, Stevens co-directed ''

The Rescuers ''The Rescuers'' is a 1977 American Animated film, animated adventure film, adventure comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor respectively star as Bernard and B ...

''. He then co-produced and co-directed ''

The Fox and the Hound ''The Fox and the Hound'' is a 1981 American animated buddy drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and loosely based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Daniel P. Mannix. It tells the story of the unlikely friendship between a r ...

'' (1981) and contributed story work during early production of '' The Black Cauldron'' (1985). Stevens retired in 1983, after 43 years at the Disney animation studio.

Personal life

Stevens was born in Roy, Montana. He was married to his wife, Penny, for 68 years, with whom he had two sons Craig and Kent. Stevens died of a heart attack in Studio City, California in 2007.

Filmography as director

*''

'' (1977) *''

'' (1981)

References

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External links

* 1915 births 2007 deaths American film producers American animated film directors American animated film producers Walt Disney Animation Studios people Artists from Montana Film directors from Montana {{US-animator-stub