Ward Kimball

Ward Kimball joined Disney Studios in 1934 as an animator. He eventually became involved in all aspects of animation production, most notably as the designer of Jiminy Cricket for the film "Pinocchio. " He was also responsible for the redesign of Mickey Mouse. Walt Disney recognized Kimball's achievements by making him one of the "Nine Old Men", Disney's semi-official group of advisors.

Nearly quit Disney after two elaborate sequences he worked on (one of them fully animated) were cut from the final film of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). He did, however, relent after he was given the coveted task of animating Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (1940).

In 1948 he formed the Firehouse Five Plus Two, a Dixieland jazz band composed of fellow Disney employees. He also maintained a full-sized train and tracks at his home in California, and was a past president of the Train Collectors Association. Not only did his love of trains get him the job of designing the World of Motion display at EPCOT, it also got another train collector started--Walt Disney himself.

Appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx's quiz show '"You Bet Your Life" (1950)' on March 18, 1954.

In his first authorized biography, "The Story of Walt Disney" (1957), Walt Disney was quoted as saying, "Ward Kimball is one man who works for me that I'm willing to call a genius." Disney rarely praised his employees, and Kimball believed he made this remark only because Disney knew the animator would be mercilessly teased by his studio peers over it.

"It's Tough to Be a Bird" (1969), produced and directed by Ward Kimball, was the last Disney animated short to win an Academy Award for over 40 years. As its producer Kimball became the only one of Disney's "Nine Old Men" animators to be personally awarded an Oscar.

Kimball retired from Disney in 1972, but still maintained ties with the studio.

Kimball was known for his offbeat, irreverent sense of humor. He was a key promoter (if not the originator) of the urban legend that Walt Disney was placed in cryogenic storage after his death. "People still constantly ask me if it's true that Walt's body is frozen and if he believed he could come back someday," Kimball told a journalist in 1973. "Well, it's such a dull world. So when I'm asked that...Just to stir things up I tell everybody he's frozen. Actually, he was cremated." And in a 1996 interview Kimball neither confirmed nor denied starting the rumor, but readily admitted, "I like to keep it floating out there.".

He joined other leading Disney animators in 1978 for a whistle-stop tour to promote Mickey Mouse's 50th birthday. In addition to animation, Kimball was both an avid musician and train enthusiast.

One of the locomotives at the Disneyland Railroad (engine No. 5) was named the "Ward Kimball" in his honor by the time it was put into service on June 25th, 2005. The plan to name the locomotive in his honor was announced at a rededication ceremony for the Disneyland Railroad engine No. 2 (the "E. P. Ripley") on March 27th, 1999.