Phyllis Barnhart (December 16, 1922 – February 6, 2008) 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 ...

and cel painter. She was best known for her work on the 1982 animated

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

, ''

The Secret of NIMH ''The Secret of NIMH'' is a 1982 American animated Fantasy film, fantasy adventure film directed by Don Bluth in his directorial debut and based on Robert C. O'Brien (author), Robert C. O'Brien's children's novel, ''Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N ...

'' (which was her only credit in an animated film, coincidentally enough). Naomi Phyllis Fowler was born on December 16, 1922, in

Levan, Utah Levan ( ) is a town in Juab County, Utah, United States. As of the 2020 census it had a population of 862. It is often said that the name of the town derives from its location near the center of Utah, because the name is "navel" spelled backw ...

. She began her career in animation at the

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

studio during the 1940s, starting on the films '' Fun & Fancy Free'' and ''

Melody Time ''Melody Time'' is a 1948 American live-action and animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney. It was released to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on May 27, 1948. Made up of seven segments set to popular music and folk music, the f ...

'', at the inking and painting department. She later worked as a freelance assistant animator and cel painter for such classic animation studios as

Filmation Filmation Associates was an American production company founded by Lou Scheimer, Hal Sutherland and Norm Prescott in 1962, before closing by Group W Productions on February 3, 1989. Located in Reseda, California, Filmation produced animated ...

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

, Bandolier Films,

Chuck Jones Productions The following is the filmography of American animator Chuck Jones. Warner Bros. Cartoons Inc. Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies Theatrical shorts (1938–1964) * ''The Night Watchman (1938 film), The Night Watchman'' (1938) (director) * ''Dog G ...

Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Fred Wolf Films is an American animation studio founded in 1967 by Fred Wolf and Jimmy T. Murakami. It was founded as MW (Murakami-Wolf). It later became known as Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (MWS) when Charles Swenson became a full partner in 1978. ...

, DePatie-Freleng and of course,

. She worked as one of the lead cel painters for ''

'' (1982), which was created at

Don Bluth Productions Don Bluth Entertainment (formerly Sullivan Bluth Studios) was an Irish-American animation studio established in 1979 by animator Don Bluth. Bluth and several colleagues, all of whom were former Disney animators, left Disney on September 13, 1979, ...

. Barnhart's husband Dale Barnhart, died in 1996. He worked as a Disney

layout In general terms, a layout is a structured arrangement of items within certain limits, or a plan for such arrangement. Specifically, layout may refer to: * Page layout, the arrangement of visual elements on a page ** Comprehensive layout (comp), ...

and

background artist A background artist or sometimes called a background stylist or background painter is one who is involved in the process of animation who establishes the color, style, and mood of a scene drawn by an animation layout artist. The methods used can e ...

on films such as ''

The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' is an 1894 collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, who ...

'' and '' The Sword in the Stone''. Phyllis Barnhart died at age 85, on February 6, 2008, in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

References

External links

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Cinematical: RIP Reel Important People, Phyllis Barnhart
1922 births 2008 deaths People from Juab County, Utah Animators from Utah American women animators Walt Disney Animation Studios people Filmation people Hanna-Barbera people Sullivan Bluth Studios people {{US-animator-stub