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Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Disney Legend Burny Mattinson, Disney's longest-serving "cast-member" (employee) and the last-living employee from Walt Disney's time, has passed away after a brief (unnamed) illness at the age of 87. He was set to receive Disney's first-ever 70 years of service award on 6 June 2023.

Mattinson worked on many of Walt Disney Animation Studios' films from 1955's "Lady and the Tramp" to (unbelievably) 2022's "Strange World," including co-directing 1986's "The Great Mouse Detective."

https://deadline.com/2023/02/burny-matt ... 235273367/

Sad news!

I love his Mickey's Christmas Carol. His contributions to Disney films will live on forever. Even sadder he didn't make it to June 6th! Darn!

RIP, Mr. Mattinson. You brought so many stories and characters to life.

RIP to a real legend

I got to see Burny at a panel at last year's D23, with Eric Goldberg, Mark Henn and Jodi Benson where they shared videos made for the WDAS Archives. That was such a cool experience, and I'm glad that I got to see him in person.

Very sad news. But it's impressive he worked for the studio for such a long time and contributed his talent to so many movies, even the more recent ones.

Disney has released a nice little video to pay tribute to him: https://twitter.com/DisneyAnimation/sta ... 4298557440

Marce82 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 8:14 pm I love his Mickey's Christmas Carol. His contributions to Disney films will live on forever. Even sadder he didn't make it to June 6th! Darn!

I love Mickey's Christmas Carol too. Yeah, it's a shame. I hope they give his family the award posthumously anyway.

It's so cool you got to meet him, Avaitor!

That was a nice video. Did he really do the Lady and the Tramp meatball roll and the Sleeping Beauty animal dance?!

D82 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 8:01 pm It's so cool you got to meet him, Avaitor!

Not meet, just saw in somewhat close proximity. I don't think he was doing meet and greets at this expo.

Wow, how interesting to find someone's been there through all of that WDAS history. I suppose he worked to such an old age because of how much he enjoyed his work. Rest in peace.

A Twitter thread with some of Mattinson's artwork has also been posted by Disney: https://twitter.com/DisneyAnimation/sta ... 9722730496

Disney Duster wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 10:46 pm That was a nice video. Did he really do the Lady and the Tramp meatball roll and the Sleeping Beauty animal dance?!

I'm not sure if he worked on those scenes specifically, but according to this article, he worked as an in-betweener on Lady and the Tramp and an assistant animator under Marc Davis on Sleeping Beauty, so perhaps he did.

Avaitor wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 11:22 am Not meet, just saw in somewhat close proximity. I don't think he was doing meet and greets at this expo.

Oh, sorry. I did understand you just saw him in person, but I didn't express myself well.

Thanks D82! In that Twitter someone posted Burny worked on that scene!

Here's a link to the official Disney corporate website's obituary for Burny Mattinson:

https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/rememb ... mattinson/