Jacques Rupp; Disney Designer and Artist

Jacques Wellington Rupp, 79, former Disney designer lauded for “Lady and the Tramp.” Born in Olympia, Wash., Rupp grew up in Paris and Seattle, earned an economics degree at the University of Washington and served in the Navy during World War II. Then he turned to art, earning a degree at the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. He won a job with Disney Studios in the early 1950s by pitching some promotional ideas for the television show, “The Wonderful World of Disney.” Rupp went on to create opening and closing titles for the show, featuring a darting Tinker Bell. As Disneyland neared completion, Rupp designed the park’s commuter bus and costumes for Frontierland and for workers on the Jungle Cruise and Canal Boat rides. He designed the settings for the 1955 Disney feature “Lady and the Tramp” and indicated what action was to occur in each of his scenes. The artist was also associated with animated versions of “Batman” and “Superman” and the “Mr. Magoo” series of cartoons. He returned to Seattle in the early 1970s and became a staff artist for the Seattle Times. There he designed several of the newspaper’s Sunday magazine covers and a hand-lettered masthead used from 1976 until 1997. He retired in 1986. On Tuesday in Seattle of cancer.