Person biography:
Art Babbitt, born Arthur Harold Babitsky, was an American animator and animation director from Omaha, Nebraska. He was born in 1907 to a Jewish family in Little Bohemia, Omaha, which had a large population of Czech emigrants from Austria-Hungary. By the time he finished kindergarten, his family moved to Sioux City, Iowa, due to his father's paralysis from an accident at work.
Babbitt's early life was marked by hardship, as he became a breadwinner at an early age. However, he was determined to pursue a career in animation. In the late 1920s, he decided to follow his dream, and in 1929, he was among the first animators hired by Terrytoons, a new animation studio established by Paul Terry.
In 1932, Babbitt applied for a job at the Walt Disney Animation Studios in Los Angeles, where he was initially hired as an assistant animator. He was soon promoted to a regular animator and worked on several animated short films, helping to animate characters such as Mickey Mouse, Pluto, and the Big Bad Wolf.
Babbitt's work on Disney's first animated feature film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," earned him a salary increase and recognition as one of the studio's top talents. He was married to actress and dancer Marge Champion from 1937 to 1940, and later worked on other Disney films, including "Pinocchio" and "Fantasia."
In the late 1930s, Babbitt became involved in the Disney animators' strike, which led to a period of tension between him and Walt Disney. After the strike, Babbitt continued to work at Disney, but eventually left the studio to work at Warner Bros. Cartoons.
During World War II, Babbitt served in the military, and after the war, he worked at United Productions of America (UPA),a studio established by former Disney personnel. He later acquired partial ownership of Quartet Films, a studio that primarily worked on television commercials.
In the 1960s, Babbitt was hired by animator Richard Williams to work on the unfinished feature film "The Thief and the Cobbler," and he also provided character animation for "Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure" (1977).
In the early 1990s, Babbitt was invited to reconcile with Disney and its staff, and he had reunions with his former rivals Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. He died in March 1992 at the age of 84, and was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 2007.
