Riley A. Thomson Jr. (October 5, 1912 – January 26, 1960) was an American animator 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 comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...

who spent most of his career working with

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

films and characters. He directed six Disney

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s including ''

The Nifty Nineties ''The Nifty Nineties'' is an animated short film produced in Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on June 20, 1941 by RKO Radio Pictures. The animated short was directed by Riley Thomson and animated by Ward Kimball, W ...

'' and '' Symphony Hour''.

Career

Thomson began his career in 1930 at the ill-fated studio of

Romer Grey Romer Zane Grey (October 1, 1909 – March 8, 1976) was the eldest son of novelist Zane Grey He wrote Western novels and books on fishing. Grey was also a scenario writer for Paramount Pictures, plus he was a producer in charge of making movie ...

. 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 ...

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

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animation, animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 197 ...

'' cartoons and focused on the character

Porky Pig Porky Pig is an animated 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 star power, and the animators created many crit ...

. The following year Thomson went to work at

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

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

Silly Symphonies ''Silly Symphony'' is an American animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the ''Silly Symphonies'' were originally intended as whimsical accompaniments to pieces ...

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

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is a 19th-century German fairy tale that is today known widely across the Western world. The Brothers Grimm published it in 1812 in the first edition of their collection ''Grimms' Fairy Tales'' and numbered as T ...

'' (1937) and "''

The Sorcerer's Apprentice "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (german: "Der Zauberlehrling", link=no, italic=no) 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 ...

''" segment of ''

Fantasia Fantasia International Film Festival (also known as Fantasia-fest, FanTasia, and Fant-Asia) is a film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. Regularly held in July of each year, it is valued by both hardcore ...

'' (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 a 1941 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 Ril ...

'' (1941), ''

'' (1941), the 1941 remake of '' Orphans' Benefit'', ''Mickey's Birthday Party'' (1942), and '' Symphony Hour'' (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 a Racine, Wisconsin, firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Its Golden Books Family Entertainment division also produced children's books and ...

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 Uncle Scrooge. The first Disney comics were newspaper strips appearing from 1930 on, starting with t ...

featuring Mickey Mouse,

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

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

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

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 t ...

, and Jaq & Gus. He also drew

Woody Woodpecker Woody Woodpecker is an animated character that appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz Productions, Walter Lantz Studio and distributed by Universal Pictures, Universal Studios between 1940 and 1972. Woody, an anthropom ...

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 y ...

'' (based on the 1946 film ''

Song of the South ''Song of the South'' is a 1946 American live-action/animated musical drama film directed by Harve Foster and Wilfred Jackson; produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on the Uncle Remus stories as adapted by J ...

'') and the '' Mickey Mouse'' 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 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios. The studio was originally formed as Universal Cartoon Studios on the initiative ...

until 1959.

Sources

References

*
Riley Thomson
at

INDUCKS The International Network of Disney Universe Comic Knowers and SourcesFrom Inducks lecture
held at ...

1912 births 1960 deaths 20th-century American artists American animators 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