Don LuskAnimator for Disney, Hanna-Barbera and Bill Melendez dies at 105Lusk joined the Disney studio in 1933, drawing various animations for the studio's Golden Age films (animating Cleo the fish for
Pinnochio, the Arabian Fish Dance for
Fantasia, the mice in
Cinderella and numerous other roles before leaving the studio in 1960, the result of the industry-wide decline of film animation and a resulting migration to cheaper television animation.
Lusk then found work at the Bill Melendez studio in 1969, working on three of the four theatrical
Peanuts films and ten specials, the most enduring of which was
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. He then moved to Hanna-Barbera and worked on that studio's 1980s productions, including
The Smurfs, before retiring in 1993 as Saturday-morning cartoons themselves fell into decline and edgier cable cartoons became the focus of the industry.
Lusk died December 30, age 105.
Obituary from the Hollywood ReporterWikipediaSamples of Don Lusk's Disney animation work