March 10 - Richard Haydn

On this day, in 1905, George Richard Haydon was born in Camberwell, London, England. While he would eventually become a prolific character actor (after dropping all of his first name and the o from his last), Richard’s career did not get off to a rousing start. He began in show business as a ticket seller at the Daily Theatre in London. He finally landed a comedic role in a musical revue but the show flopped. Deciding maybe the theater wasn’t for him, he moved to Jamaica and became an overseer on a banana plantation. After a hurricane wiped out the plantation, he returned to England, unsure of what to do with his life. While he tried to figure that out, he kept picking away at the whole acting thing. In 1926, he was cast in a West End production of Betty of Mayfair which led to his first roles on radio and, finally, some success.

Image courtesy forums.tcm.com

It was on the radio that Richard developed and perfected the basic character he would play variations of for the rest of his life: a stuffy fellow with a nasally voice and a tendency to over enunciate. His most famous version of this character was Professor Carp, a fish expert and momma’s boy, on The Charley McCarthy Show. The professor was so popular that Richard wrote a book about him in 1954, The Journal of Edwin Carp. His numerous radio appearances led him back to stage in 1939 when he hopped the pond and made his Broadway debut in Noel Coward’s Set to Music opposite Beatrice Lillie. The success of that show brought Richard a contract with 20^th Century Fox. Throughout the Forties, he played mostly comedic supporting roles to great acclaim. Some of his highlights include Professor Oddly in 1941’s Ball of Fire, Rogers the butler in 1945’s And Then There Were None and Mr. Appleton in 1948’s Sitting Pretty.

Image copyright 20th Century Fox

Richard continued his role as character actor extraordinaire into the Fifties but began adding television shows to his resume. His career began slowing down in the Sixties but some of his most well known performances come from that decade. In 1960, he played Bartlet Finchley in an episode of The Twilight Zone called "A Thing About Machines." 1962 was the year he portrayed William Brown in the classic Mutiny on the Bounty. In 1965 he was Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music. He reprised Professor Carp on episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show and had a famous (if somewhat off color by today's standards) turn as a Japanese businessman on Bewitched. Richard made his last appearance on film (although his voice would go uncredited as Bookworm in 1985's The Hugga Bunch) in one of my favorite films, Young Frankenstein, in 1974. He plays Herr Falkstein, the lawyer at the beginning of the picture trying to convince Gene Wilder of his true heritage.

Image copyright Disney

Richard has two Disney credits to his name. The first happened in 1951 as the voice of the marvelously haughty Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. I'm pretty sure that no one else would have been able to make exactly three inches high sound like a giant. His other role is somewhat lesser known. In 1967, Disney released a comedic Western musical (of sorts) complete with songs by the Sherman Brothers and yet I'd wager not many people have heard of it. It even starred Roddy McDowall, Suzanne Pleshette and Karl Malden. The picture is called The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin and Richard plays Quentin Bartlett, an actor who has his map to a gold mine stolen by a villainous Malden.

Richard never liked the whole Hollywood scene all that much. He'd never gotten married (although he was engaged for a few months in 1943) and spent most of his spare time reading and gardening. Sometime on April 25, 1985, while alone at his home in Pacific Palisades, California, he suffered a fatal heart attack. His body was donated to the University of California, Los Angeles medical department for science. He was 80 years old.

September 3 - Eric Larson

On this day, in 1905, Eric Cleon Larson was born in Cleveland, Utah. 

Eric attended the University of Utah as a journalism major. While studying as a Ute, he became editor of the campus magazine and was known for his wit, both in written articles and cartoons. He even got a few into the local newspaper. After graduation, Eric hit the road as a freelancer, ending up in Los Angeles in 1933. One of the first things he did in town was develop a radio serial named "The Trail of the Viking" for KHJ Radio. That same year, a friend witnessed Eric's drawing skills and suggested he apply at the Disney Studio.

Almost immediately hired on as an assistant animator, Eric would be instrumental in developing, and later maintaining, the high artistic quality the Disney Studio became known for. He also solidly earned his place as one of Walt's Nine Old Men.

 The list of characters Eric created is extensive:

 As an animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, he was responsible for the woodland creatures that follow Snow White around.

As an animation director for Pinocchio, he created Figaro, a character he would frequently claim as his favorite.

He was in charge of the centaurs and horses in the "Pastoral Symphony segment of Fantasia.

He became a supervising animator by Bambi, creating Friend Owl.

His next two movies also involved birds: the Aracuan bird in The Three Caballeros and Sasha the Bird for Make Mine Music.

He was a directing animator on Song of the South, Melody Time and So Dear to My Heart.

He co-animated the title character in Cinderella with fellow Old Man, Marc Davis.

For 1951's Alice in Wonderland, he brought the caterpillar to life, which is a bit of a self portrait.

He flew everyone to Neverland in Peter Pan.

Peg, the Pekingese leader of the pound, was his contribution to Lady and the Tramp.

He was a Sequence Director on Sleeping Beauty.

He assisted in creating several of the puppies for 101 Dalmatians.

Eric also contributed to The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Robin Hood and dozens of shorts.

One of the last pieces of actual animation Eric did for the studio was the title sequence for The Rescuers in 1977.

After Walt's death in 1965, it became more and more apparent with each passing year that the talent pool the studio had enjoyed for decades was steadily shrinking. In 1973, Eric began ramping up the Talent Program to usher in the next generation of animators. He became a devoted mentor to such newcomers as Andreas Deja, who created Jafar for Aladdin and Scar for The Lion King, and a laundry list of others: Glen Keane, Gary Goldman, and Betsy Baytos to name a few. Deja once said that "no one was more concerned with passing on the Disney legacy than Eric."

By 1981, the rest of the Nine Old Men had either retired or passed away. As the last representative of the old school, Eric spent his final years with the company as an animation consultant, gently shepherding the new kids who'd come into their own on films like The Fox and the Hound. After watching over The Black Cauldron and The Great Mouse Detective, Eric retired in September of 1986 after more than 52 years spent creating Disney magic. Two years later, he would pass away in La Canada Flintridge, California, near Glendale, on October 25, 1988.

Eric was posthumously made a Disney Legend, along with his fellow Old Men, in 1989.