March 30 , 1913 – January 12 , 2000 ) was a prominent artist and animator for Walt Disney Studios. He was one of Disney’s Nine Old Men , the famed core animators of Disney animated films.
Some of the animated characters Davis mainly designed and animated are Thumper from Bambi ( 1942 ), Brer Rabbit from Song of the South ( 1946 ), Cinderella ( 1950 ), Alice of Alice in Wonderland ( 1951 ), Tinker Bell in Peter Pan ( 1953 ), Maleficent and Aurora in Sleeping Beauty ( 1959 ) and Cruella De Vil of 101 Dalmatians ( 1961 ).
Davis also designed the characters for many Disneyland ride and show animatronics: The Enchanted Tiki Room, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Ford’s Magic Skyway, Carousel of Progress, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Cruise, America Sings, The Haunted Mansion, “It’s a Small World,” Western River Expedition, and the Country Bear Jamboree.
His wife Alice Davis created the original costuming for figures in the Disneyland rides Pirates of the Caribbean and “It’s a Small world.”
In 1989, he was named a Disney Legend . He was also the receipient of the much coveted Mousecar.
Davis died in January 2000; that same month, the Marc Frasier Davis Scholarship Fund formally was established at the California Institute of the Arts .
Quotes
On Disneyland rides: “We really don’t have a story, with a beginning, an end, or a plot. It’s more a series of experiences building up to a climax. I call them experience rides.”
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