Last Updated on March 16, 2003

Marc Davis

Tinkerbell's Animator

Mark and his wife Alice

Marc Davis was on of the finest draftsmen ever to work at Walt Disney Studios...Marc Davis is definitely a legend...He was born in 1913 in Bakersfield, California... Early in Marc's life, he was determined to be an artist...Growing up during the Great Depression, jobs for artists were not easy to find...Then Walt Disney walked into his life... He was of the original "Nine Old Men" whom Walt Disney gathered around him to develop the new art of animation...Marc joined the Walt Disney Studio in 1935, and he started out as an assisstant animator to animator Grim Natwick...Although, Marc Davis didn't always intend on becoming an animator...Still he spent most of his life in that field...Mr. Davis was a key animator at Disney for forty-two years....For seventeen of those years, he taught advanced classes in drawing at Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles...

At Disney, Marc Davis is given credit for creating such characters as Snow White, Alice of Alice in Wonderland and Cinderella... Also with his talent in creating brilliant female characters, he created Tinkerbell, Wendy, Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent, and Cruella DeVil of 101 Dalmations,the Mad Hatter, and the March Hare...Davis then earned a reputation as the greatest animator of the female form...

Working on Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs in 1937 was Davis's first test as a professional animator...He learned everything that he could from Natwick, whose professional credits included creating Betty Boop and many others... Since Davis had experience drawing animals before he was hired by the studio, and with Snow White completed, Walt Disney asked him to work on Bambi in 1942...His main responsibility was to draw the character "Flower", but he also worked on preproduction development and the story line...Davis also worked on Disney's least known feature Song of the South in 1946... This lead to Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, which combined animation with live action characters...He also drew the drawing of Brer Fox about to roast Brer Rabbit, which still stands out as a great animation...

Davis' next triumph was Cinderella in 1950...Walt Disney's all-time personal favorite piece of animation was a piece that Marc Davis worked on... The piece was were Cinderella was coming down the stairs wearing the dress the mice and birds created for her...

After Cinderella, Davis moved on to Alice In Wonderland in1951...Working closely with Milt Kahl, he animated Alice, the Mad Hatter and the March Hare...

In Peter Pan that was made in 1953, Davis brought both Tinkerbell and Wendy to life... Over the years, "Tink" has been used as the silent hostess for Disneyland and many of Disney's television shows... Today, Tinkerbell cells are among the rarest and most collectible characters to come out of the Disney Studios...

Davis made his greatest mark on Disney's most expensive and last hand inked film Sleeping Beauty in 1959... Sleeping Beauty was to be Walt Disney's most lavish film yet... Davis' expert ability to draw detail made him the obvious choice to do Sleeping Beauty's two main characters...The beautiful Briar Rose and the evil villan Maleficent...With consummate grace and skill, Davis created many of the most memorable characters of all time...

After he designed and supervised the animation of Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmations, he launched a new career as an imagineer...Marc Davis helped Walt Disney turn dreams into reality...He also helped to design and enhance some of Disney theme park's main attractions, including the Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion (my favorite), It's A Small World, The Jungle Cruise, The Country Bear Jamboree, and the old mine ride Rainbow Caverns... His designs for Pirates of the Caribbean became a family affair when his wife Alice was given the job designing the pirate's costumes...Alice also designed costumes for other attractions like It's A Small World... His input at Disneyland was so inspiring that many of his creations have been copied at the newer Disney theme parks...Up until the time of his death, Jan 12,2000, Davis was active and accessible...His spirit will live on in the very memorable characters he has created...

In Remembrance of Marc Davis (1913-2000)

This information was acquired from the official Marc Davis web site... If you are interested in learning more about Marc Davis, then you should visit his official web site.... www.marcdavis.com

Mrs. Alice Davis is pleased to announce the formal establishment of The Marc Frasier Davis Scholarship Fund at California Institute of the Arts. The Scholarship is designed to benefit students of exceptional merit with financial need, who are enrolled in CalArts' Character Animation Program.