- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHamilton Somers Luske
- Nickname
- Ham
- Hamilton Luske was an American animator and film director from Chicago, who spend most of his career at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. He served as the supervising director of several of Disney's films. He was also the supervising animator for the character of Snow White in the feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), tasked with making the character more believably human and realistic than any previous Disney character.
Luske graduated from the University of California- Berkley, where he majored in business. He started his working life as a newspaper cartoonist in Oakland. Luske was hired by Walt Disney Animation in 1931, and received most of his training as an animator there. His early work included several of the studio's short films, both in the anthology series "Silly Symphonies" (1929-1939) and the long-running character-driven series "Mickey Mouse" (1929-1953). His first major assignment was serving as the supervising animator of Snow White in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937). He was rewarded for his success by becoming a supervising director in subsequent films.
Luske served as a supervising director in the feature film "Pinocchio" (1940), which he co-directed with Ben Sharpsteen. He co-directed "The Pastoral Symphony" segment of the anthology film "Fantasia" (1940), which focused on characters from Greco-Roman mythology. Luske served as the supervising director of the animated segments of the feature film "The Reluctant Dragon" (1941), while the live-action segments were directed by Alfred Werker.
Luske subsequently co-directed "Saludos Amigos" (1942), "Make Mine Music" (1946), "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947), "Melody Time" (1948), "So Dear to My Heart" (1948), "Cinderella" (1950), "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), "Peter Pan" (1953), "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), and "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961). He directed an animated sequence in the live-action musical film "Mary Poppins" (1964), and won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects for his efforts.
Luske's last significant assignment was directing the animated short film "Scrooge McDuck and Money" (1967), marking the first animated appearance of Scrooge. Scrooge McDuck had been a recurring character in Disney comics since 1947, but had received no adaptations in film until Luske's short film.
Luske died in 1968, in Bel Air, California, at the age of 64. At the time, Disney's other veteran animators had started leaving or retiring, marking an end of an era for the studio. Luske was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 1999. Luske's son Tommy Luske worked as a voice actor in the 1950s.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dimos I
- SpouseFrances Mary Crabb(August 13, 1928 - February 19, 1968) (his death, 2 children)
- Animator and animation director who worked for Walt Disney. He graduated from the University of California- Berkley where he majored in business and began working life as a newspaper cartoonist in Oakland. He signed with Disney in 1931, initially drawing Mickey Mouse black & white shorts before moving on as full animator to the Silly Symphony series which was done in colour and had a strong musical component. He established himself as one of the top animators at the studio with the hugely popular cartoons The Tortoise and the Hare (1935) and Who Killed Cock Robin? (1935). On the strength of this he became supervising animator on their first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
- Father of cinematographer Jim Luske.
- Hamilton won the Academy Award for Best Special Visual Effects for Mary Poppins (1964) in 1965.
- Luske graduated from the University of California- Berkley where he majored in business. He began to make a living as a newspaper cartoonist in Oakland, where he worked throughout the 1920s. Soon however it was the Great Depression and work for a commercial cartoonist was few and far between no matter how good you were. Fortunately at the same time the Disney Studio was looking for artists to work on their shorts, which were rapidly becoming better both in success and quality. Not surprisingly Luske took the opportunity to apply for a job and was hired in April 1931.
- Ham used his one year old son Jim Luske as the live action actor for Baby Weems in the film Reluctant Dragon (1941). His daughter Peggy's Cocker Spaniel, Blondie was used as the model for Lady in Lady and The Tramp (1955). His son Tom was the voice and model for the character of the youngest Darling boy, Michael, in Peter Pan (1953). Hamilton's wife Marcel, modeled for the character Persephone in the Silly Symphony, Goddess of the Spring (1934).
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