Ub Iwerks (1901 - 1971)
Ub Iwerks, was born in Kansas, Missouri in 1901, although his family had originated from Germany and had come to the states. In 1919 (when he was 18), Iwerks met Walt Disney at an art studio in Kansas and they both went to join the Kansas City Film Ad Company where Disney proposed that they begin working on a animation company which Iwerks readily agreed to. As the company went on, Disney and Iwerks began work on animated series such as “The Alice Comedies” and “Oswald The Lucky Rabbit”. When they realized the popularity of these series, Disney had a separate animation studio setup for the singular use of Iwerks to develop different characters. This led to the creation of the most famous mouse in the world, “Mickey Mouse”. In the beginning, the entire “Mickey Mouse” series was animated and designed by Iwerks. Sadly, as the fame of Mickey spread, Walt and Ub had a falling out since Ub didn’t think that he was getting enough credit for the work that he was doing and that Ub couldn’t cope with the audacious demands of Walts. Iwerks left Disney in 1930 and started his own company, which wasn’t as successful as Disney, but it did make some movies such as “Flip the Frog” and “Willie Whopper”. Sadly, when Iwerks sold it over to MGM, they went bankrupt in 1936.
After, Iwerks animated quite a few more animated projects, working primarily with Looney Toons, but finally returned to work with Walt Disney in the year 1940. They had an agreement that Iwerks could work as he pleased and he could use Disney’s resources to develop special effects for animation, which, surprisingly, some are still used to this day. He also developed the notion and animation for Mary Poppins; combining live action filming with animation, which he won an Oscar for. Some other achievements were working on the special effects for Alfred Hitchcocks “The Birds” in 1963. However, Ub Iwerks died from a heart attack in 1971 at the age 70.
After, Iwerks animated quite a few more animated projects, working primarily with Looney Toons, but finally returned to work with Walt Disney in the year 1940. They had an agreement that Iwerks could work as he pleased and he could use Disney’s resources to develop special effects for animation, which, surprisingly, some are still used to this day. He also developed the notion and animation for Mary Poppins; combining live action filming with animation, which he won an Oscar for. Some other achievements were working on the special effects for Alfred Hitchcocks “The Birds” in 1963. However, Ub Iwerks died from a heart attack in 1971 at the age 70.