February 12 - Peter Ellenshaw

Image courtesy ellenshaw.com

On this day, in 2007, William Samuel Cook Ellenshaw passed away in Santa Barbara, California. Born in Essex, England on May 24, 1913, Peter (as he was known) lost his father to World War I. He left school when he was 14 to work as a mechanic to support his family. He displayed a talent for art in his spare time and after meeting W Percy Day, a British portrait painter, he spent seven years as Percy's apprentice.

Percy was also an early pioneer in the art of matte painting for films. Rather than travel to exotic (and expensive) locations, an artist could create a location on a pane of glass. When the camera was placed on one side of the pane and the actors were strategically placed on a small set on the other side of the pane, the illusion was created that the actors were in the jungle or on the moon when in reality they were on a soundstage. Peter learned the art from his mentor working on such films as 1940's The Thief of Bagdad.

Image courtesy of thecollectionshop.com

World War II would interrupt many careers and Peter's was no exception. After a tour with the Royal Air Force, he would return to matte painting once the war was over. The biggest post-war change was that he began working with Hollywood studios who were making pictures in Europe, like MGM's ancient Roman epic, Quo Vadis.

In 1950, Peter was hired by the Walt Disney Studio to paint backgrounds for the company's first live action film, Treasure Island, which was being filmed in England. His masterful renditions of historical England saved the studio from having to find and shoot in cramped, hard to reach locations. It also started a relationship that would span several decades.

Image courtesy d23.com

In 1953, Peter moved from his native land to Hollywoodland. He next painted backgrounds for the Disney classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1954. Ten years later, he once again returned to historical London when he painted 102 different mattes for Mary Poppins. His genius with a brush allowed the picture to be shot entirely on soundstages in Burbank. His efforts on Poppins also earned him an Oscar for Best Visual Effects, which he shared with Eustace Lycett and Hamilton Luske.

Peter would earn three more Academy Award nominations, all for Best Visual Effects, for his work on Disney features: Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), The Island on Top of the World (1974) and The Black Hole (1979). All told, he painted for 34 Disney films including Old Yeller, Pollyanna, The Absent-Minded Professor and The Love Bug. He also contributed to a slew of television productions, mostly for whatever Disney anthology show was currently running.

Image courtesy artinsights.com

Following his contributions to The Black Hole, Peter retired from the motion picture industry and devoted the remainder of his life to his passion of creating fine art. Some of his works were Disney themed and some were the landscapes he loved to paint of the California coastline. All of them are highly collectible. He would return as a matte painter a handful of times, most notably for the 1990 Disney film Dick Tracy and working with his son Harrison, another Oscar winner for effects, on Superman IV. In 1993, Peter was declared an official Disney Legend for his invaluable contributions to so many classic films. He was 93 when he died.