Burny Mattinson, Disney’s longest serving employee who started out as a mailroom clerk at the age of 18, recently died at 87 following a period of short illness.
Mattinson was due to receive his 70th year anniversary award on June 4, making him the first-ever to receive the accolade for the accomplishment.
He served as animator, producer, director, and story artist at Disney saw his work span across famous classics like ‘Lady and the Tramp’, ‘Lion King’, ‘The Jungle Book’, and ‘The Great Mouse Detective’, and even ‘Mary Poppins’.
His story as an animator began when his mother took the young boy to watch Pinocchio before he was six, and ever since he said that it was his dream to work at Disney.
When he turned 18, Mattinson’s mother took him to the gates of the Disney Studio where a security guard looked at his portfolio and called up Personnel and got an interview.
He landed the interview and worked as an ‘In-betweener’ for ‘Lady and the Tramp’, after which Mattinson was made assistant animator for ‘Sleeping Beauty’, and continued in that role for ‘One Hundred And One Dalmatians’.
After the project ended, Mattinson took on a 12-year stint with Eric Larson, working across various projects including Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color television series (1961-1969), The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins (1964), The Jungle Book, and The Aristocats (1970).
Among Mattinson’s achievements were a solo directing credit on the animated featurette Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983), which returned Mickey Mouse to the silver screen for the first time in 30 years, and a role as producer as well as co-director of the 1986 Disney feature The Great Mouse Detective, Disney said.
Mattinson was named a Disney Legend in 2008 and set a record for cast member longevity on March 5, 2018 a post previously held by Disney Legend John Hench.
Eric Goldberg, a Disney animator and a close friend and colleague of Mattinson’s, said, “Burny was the Renaissance man of Disney Animation. He literally did everything that could be done at the studio—assistant animator, animator, story artist, producer, and director of many films that made an indelible mark on our collective appreciation of the Disney ethos. He was also, when he started, traffic boy to Walt, giving Walt his weekly spending cash.”
Jennifer Lee, CCO-Walt Disney, said, “Burny’s artistry, generosity, and love of Disney Animation and the generations of storytellers that have come through our doors, for seven decades, has made us better—better artists, better technologists, and better collaborators. All of us who have had the honor to know him and learn from him will ensure his legacy carries on.”
