The prolific Disney animator, Don Lusk who gave birth to Pinocchio and characters from other classic films during Disney’s Golden Age, breathed his last at the age of 105. According to Hollywood Reporter, he died at a retirement home in San Clemente, California.
Lusk joined the Walt Disney Company at the age of 20, working on Mickey Mouse shorts for several years. He then went on to work on Disney classics such as Bambi, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty and One Hundred and One Dalmatians. He even worked on segments of Fantasia, The Nutcracker Suite and Pastoral Symphony.
Nominated twice for Daytime Emmys for his work on The Smurfs in 1988 and 1989, and again in 1999 for A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Lusk has also received the Winsor McCay lifetime achievement award at the Annies in 2014.
In 1960, Lusk left Disney for Hanna-Barbera, but continues working as an animator. His credits include Gay Purr-ee (1962), Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear (1964) The Secret Squirrel Show (1965), The Man Called Flintstone (1966), The Atom Ant Show (1966), The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1968), A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), The Adventures of Gummi Bears (1990), The Thief and the Cobbler (1993), Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1993) and Mickey’s House of Villains (2001).
