David Hand, Award-Winning Animator for Disney, Dies at 86

David Hand, an award-winning pioneer in the animation industry whom Walt Disney selected as supervising director for his classics “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Bambi,” has died in a San Luis Obispo hospital of the complications of a stroke. He was 86.

He joined Disney in 1930 as one of a handful of animators for the early Mickey Mouse and “Silly Symphony” shorts. After working on more than 60 cartoons, including the Academy Award-winning “Flowers and Trees” in 1932, Hand, who died Oct. 11, was personally selected by Disney to be the supervising director of the studio’s first full-length animated feature, “Snow White,” in 1937.

Hand also directed “Bambi” in 1942 and then was named animation supervisor on the 1943 film “Victory Through Air Power.”

Hand was a veteran animator even before his Disney years, drawing “Andy Gump” in 1919 and the “Out of the Inkwell” series for Max Fleischer. He then joined Eastman Kodak doing a series of instructional films before joining Disney.

Toward the end of World War II, British producer J. Arthur Rank became interested in the animation field and lured Hand away from Disney to teach English artists. He eventually supervised many of the “Musical Paintbox” and “Animaland” series.

He returned to the United States in 1951 and in 1983 co-authored with his wife, sculptor Martha Armstrong, the book “Living Dolls.”

In 1984 he was given an Annie Award for creative excellence, the animation equivalent of the Oscar.

Frank Thomas, one of Disney’s original artists, a group known today as the “Nine Old Men” of the animation industry, this week remembered Hand for his “energy, drive and determination. When Walt (Disney) explained something, Dave understood--not many others did.”