Biography

In 1953 Wilfred Jackson suffered a heart attack while directing sequences for "Lady and the Tramp" (1955), and was never able to resume full-time duties at the Disney studio. He was replaced as a director on "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) and worked sporadically on Disney's TV shows. In 1959 Jackson took an extended leave of absence that ended with his official retirement in 1961.

He has directed seven films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: The Old Mill (1937), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940), Dumbo (1941), Cinderella (1950) and Lady and the Tramp (1955).

Was posthumously named a Disney Legend in 1998.

Jackson was fascinated with cartoons from childhood. While studying at the Otis College of Art and Design in 1928, he approached Walt Disney and offered to pay him "tuition" for the experience of learning animation, which in those days could only be acquired on the job. His skills did not impress the young producer but his timing was fortuitous. Disney was in the process of having his star character, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and staff raided by distributor Charles Mintz, and had to rebuild the studio with a new character, Mickey Mouse. Jackson was hired as an all-around assistant, working closely with animator Ub Iwerks. When Disney proposed the gamble of making "Steamboat Willie" (1928) in sound, harmonica-player Jackson proved it was feasible by devising a crude synchronization method that related film speed with the musical beats of a metronome. He continued to assist Iwerks on such films as "The Skeleton Dance" (1929) before being promoted ("kicked upstairs" he called it) to director in 1930.

Three Disney shorts directed by Jackson won Academy Awards: "The Tortoise and the Hare" (1935), cited as the first cartoon to effectively animate speed; "The Country Cousin" (1936); and "The Old Mill" (1937), a showcase for Disney's new Multiplane Camera.