Riley A. Thomson Jr. (October 5, 1912 – January 26, 1960) 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

comics artist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the literar ...

who spent most of his career working with

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney ( ; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the Golden age of American animation, American animation industry, he introduced several develop ...

films and characters. He directed six Disney

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

s including '' The Nifty Nineties'' and ''

Symphony Hour ''Symphony Hour'' is a 1942 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon depicts Mickey Mouse conducting a symphony orchestra sponsored by Pete. The film was directed by Riley ...

''.

Career

Thomson began his career in 1930 at the ill-fated studio of Romer Grey. In 1935, he joined

Leon Schlesinger Productions Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it w ...

(Warner Bros.) as an animator. While there he worked on ''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...

'' cartoons and focused on the character

Porky Pig Porky Pig is a cartoon character in the Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, star power, and the animators created man ...

. The following year Thomson went to work at

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 ...

. He was first an animator and worked on ''Mickey Mouse'', ''

Silly Symphonies ''Silly Symphony'' (also known as ''Silly Symphonies'') is an American animation, animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the ''Si ...

'', and ''Donald Duck'' short films. He also worked on the feature-length film ''

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White" is a German fairy tale, first written down in the early 19th century. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'', numbered as Tale 53. The original title was ''Sneewittch ...

'' (1937) and "''

The Sorcerer's Apprentice "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" () is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe written in 1797. The poem is a ballad in 14 stanzas. Story The poem begins as an old sorcerer departs his workshop, leaving his apprentice with chores to perform. Tired of ...

''" segment of '' Fantasia'' (1940). After working on ''Fantasia'' Thomson moved to the story department where he became a writer and director. He directed the short films '' Put-Put Troubles'' (1940), ''

The Little Whirlwind ''The Little Whirlwind'' is an animated short subject, part of the ''Mickey Mouse'' series, produced by Walt Disney for Walt Disney Productions. The short was released by RKO Radio Pictures on February 14, 1941. The film was directed by Riley T ...

'' (1941), '' The Nifty Nineties'' (1941), the 1941 remake of '' Orphans' Benefit'', '' Mickey's Birthday Party'' (1942), and ''

'' (1942). He also received story credits for ''They're Off'' (1948) and '' Dude Duck'' (1951). (The latter misspells his surname as "Thompson.") In 1950, Thomson moved into the field of comics. He worked for

Western Publishing Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company, was an American company founded in 1907 in Racine, Wisconsin, best known for publishing the Little Golden Books. Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also ...

from 1950 to 1953 drawing for several different comic books. His work mainly included

Disney comics Disney comics are comic books and comic strips featuring characters created by the Walt Disney Company, including Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Scrooge McDuck. The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on, starting with t ...

featuring

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of the Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large shoes, and white ...

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by the Walt Disney Company. Donald is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit, sailor shirt and cap with ...

Pluto Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of Trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the Su ...

Chip 'n' Dale Chip and Dale (also spelled Chip 'n' Dale) are a cartoon duo of anthropomorphic chipmunks created by The Walt Disney Company, who debuted in the 1943 short film '' Private Pluto''. Concept The characters were first drawn by Bill Justice an ...

Grandma Duck The Duck family is a fictional family of cartoon ducks related to Disney character Donald Duck. The family is also related to the Coot, Goose, and Gander families, as well as the Scottish Clan McDuck. Besides Donald, the best-known members of the ...

, and Jaq & Gus. He also drew

Woody Woodpecker Woody Woodpecker is a cartoon character that appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz Productions, Walter Lantz Studio and Universal Animation Studios, Universal Animation Studio and distributed by Universal Pictures sinc ...

comics. Throughout the 1950s, Thomson drew comic strips for the Disney Studios including ''

Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit ''Uncle Remus and His Tales of Br'er Rabbit'' is an American Disney comic strip that ran on Sundays from October 14, 1945, to December 31, 1972. It first appeared as a topper strip for the ''Mickey Mouse'' Sunday page, but after the first few ye ...

'' (based on the 1946 film ''

Song of the South ''Song of the South'' is a 1946 American Live-action animated film, live-action/animated musical film, musical comedy-drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson, produced by Walt Disney, and released by RKO Pictures, RKO Radio Pi ...

'') and the ''

'' daily newspaper strip. Thomson returned to animation in 1957 and worked for

Walter Lantz Productions Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1949 and then from 1950 to 1972, and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Pictures. The studio was originally formed as Universal Carto ...

until 1960.

Notes

References

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Riley Thomson
at INDUCKS 1912 births 1960 deaths 20th-century American artists American comics artists American animated film directors Walt Disney Animation Studios people People from Alhambra, California Film directors from California Warner Bros. Cartoons people Disney comics artists {{Disney-stub