Born in Tacoma, Washington, Sharpsteen was later raised in Alameda, California.
From a young age, he once spent the summer in Calistoga. Years afterward, he studied agriculture at the University of California at Davis.
In 1917, Sharpsteen joined the United States Marines to serve in World War I.
Some years later, he came back from the military and got his start by beginning to work for many major animation studios.
Sharpsteen subsequently enjoyed tenures at various animation studios, such as Hearst International.
At Hearst, Sharpsteen started as an apprentice, first doing piecework and then as an inker. While there, he worked on such early animated series as Happy Hooligan.
At the end of his six months there, he became a full animator.
Working at various different studios during this period, including Paramount Pictures and Jefferson Films, Sharpsteen took on a position doing art work at the Oakland Tribune on the West Coast.
After receiving a letter from American animator, inventor, film director and producer Max Fleischer requesting Sharpsteen's return to New York, he later animated at the Max Fleischer Studio for over two years.
Disappointed at the standard in the animation business, Sharpsteen returned to San Francisco to freelance as an artist. This was before moving onto Disney Studio in 1929.
A mutual friend had recommended Ben to Disney, of whom sent a letter inviting him to visit the studio in Los Angeles.
The day Sharpsteen arrived, Disney showed his prospective employee Mickey Mouse cartoons. “My first reaction,” Sharpsrteen later recalled, “was that they were excellent, compared to animation I knew..."
Receiving another letter from Walt Disney who was now embarking on sound animations, Sharpsteen decided to head to Los Angeles to work for him.
Impressed with the work happening at Disney, and Walt’s ambitious approach, Sharpsteen began animating for Disney, and was soon assigned with the task of training new animators.
As time went on, Sharpsteen took on largely a director and supervisor role at Disney, establishing an in-house animation training system and head hunter for talent.
Disney valued Sharpsteen for his New York studio experience and hired him at $125 a week, a salary higher than his own, $50.
This was also that of Disney's top animator, being American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician Ub Iwerks, of whom was making $90.
For the next six years, Sharpsteen animated on ninety-seven Mickey Mouse cartoons.
In 1933, at Walt’s request, Sharpsteen established an in-house animation training program and acted as a talent scout.
He later recruited such stellar artists as Ukrainian American animator Disney Legend Vladimir Peter "Bill" Tytla.
The next year, Sharpsteen directed the first of twenty-one animated shorts.
The most notable of these is the nine-minute 1934 American black and white Western comedy/short film 'Two Gun Mickey'. However, he went uncredited.
In 1936, when the studio moved into feature-length animation, Disney started producing these as Sharpsteen eventually moved on to director and supervisor on many beloved Disney features from the Golden Age.
Sharpsteen then worked as the sequence director on 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' (1937). He would later go on to serve as the supervising director on 'Pinocchio' (1940) and 'Fantasia' (1940), and 'Dumbo' (1941).
Seven years later, Sharpsteen produced his first live-action film, being the twenty-seven-minute 1948 American Technicolor documentary short film 'Seal Island'. This was the first of the True-Life Adventures series.
The following year, 'Seal Island' won an Oscar for the studio for Best Short Subject, Two-reel. This occurred at the 21st Academy Awards in late march 1949.
Later that same year, it won an award for Best Subject - Short Film. This occurred at the 3rd Cannes Film Festival in September.
The True-Life Adventures series was a collection of fourteen full-length and short subject documentary films produced by Walt Disney Productions roughly between 1948 and 1960.
As time went on, the series won numerous Academy Awards for the studio, including five awards for Best Two Reel Live Action Short.
In the 1950s, Sharpsteen served as production supervisor on 'Cinderella' (1950) and as production supervision on 'Alice In Wonderland' (1951).
Also, during the 1950s, Sharpsteen produced the “People & Places” series. The series was a collection of short subject documentary films by Walt Disney Productions roughly between the years 1953 and 1960.
The program was shot in CinemaScope, and filming location were countries from around the world of which the Disney staff had visited. Three of the episodes from the series earned Oscars later on.
Also, during this time, Sharpsteen served as associate producer on the twenty-seven-minute 1953 American Technicolor documentary family short film 'The Alaskan Eskimo'. It was the initial film in Disney's "People & Places" series.
Like 'Seal Island', the short describes the daily life of the eponymous subject, showing scenes of reindeer hunts, landing of whales, dogsled treks, and the Spring Festival ceremony.
One year later, 'The Alaskan Eskimo' won an Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subjects. This occurred at the 26th Academy Awards in late March.
The following year, Sharpsteen began producing the American anthology television series Disneyland (1954–1958) for ABC. It had premiered on October 27.
The series was known by various titles since its introduction (and currently entitled The Wonderful World of Disney. This was Disney's first foray into the weekly television show format.
One year post-airing, the Disneyland theme park opened in July 1955. Sharpsteen went on to produce twelve of the thirteen True-Life Adventures, eight of which earned Academy Awards.
In December of that same year, Sharpsteen co-produced the thirty-minute 1955 American Technicolor documentary family short film 'Men Against the Arctic'.
The short was part of Disney's "People & Places" series. It tells the story of the "Icebreakers" - ships of very special construction that are built to make their way through the heavy Arctic ice packs on a trip to Thule.
The following year, 'Men Against the Arctic' won an Oscar for Best Documentary, Short Subjects. This occurred at the 28th Academy Awards in late March 1956.
Two years later, Sharpsteen directed the twenty-nine-minute 1958 American Technicolor documentary family short film 'Ama Girls'.
Also known as 'Japan Harvests the Sea', the short was a part of Disney's "People & Places" series. It was also narrated by Hibler. The film was a depiction of the lives of "ama" divers; Japanese women who dive for pearls.
The following year, 'Ama Girls' won Best Documentary, Short Subjects. This occurred at the 31st Academy Awards in early April 1959.
However, American film director, screenwriter, and producer James Algar accepted the award instead of Sharpsteen.
Altogether, Sharpsteen had remained at Disney for thirty-three years, finally retiring in 1962.
In 1976, he began to build the Sharpsteen Museum, and in doing so he drew upon the skills that he had learned at the Walt Disney Studios as an artist, storyteller, and producer.
In 1978, Sharpsteen and his wife, Bernice, founded the Sharpsteen Museum; an award-winning museum, dedicated to the pioneers of the historic region.
Located in Calistoga, the museum also documents the history of California's first millionaire.
This was American settler, businessman, journalist, and prominent Mormon Sam Brannan, of whom founded the California Star, the first newspaper in San Francisco
The museum documents the history of the Upper Napa Valley, as well as more on Sharpsteen's life and work. The museum is packed with displays, artifacts, and dioramas that illustrate the history of Calistoga.
This includes dioramas, artifacts, antiques and exhibits designed by Sharpsteen and his team of highly creative artists dedicated to making history fun and educational for adults and children alike.
Two years later, Sharpsteen passed in Calistoga, California on December 20, 1980. He was 85.
In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'"culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it as one of the first twenty-five films for preservation in the National Film Registry.
In 1990, 'Fantasia' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
In 1994, 'Pinocchio' was added to the United States National Film Registry for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
in 1998, the American Film Institute ranked 'Fantasia' as the 58th greatest American film in their 100 Years...100 Movies and the fifth greatest animated film in their 10 Top 10 list.
In 2017, 'Dumbo' was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically and aesthetically significant".
While Walt Disney will always be remembered first and foremost as the leader of the Disney empire, there were several other "behind the scenes" contributors who lent a hand in Disney's construction, that being Sharpsteen.
Sharpsteen had been active from 1920–1980.
#borntoanimate
#borntodirect
#SharpsteenMuseum
@Disney
@DisneyLand
@WaltDiseyWorld
@DisneyD23
@WDhistory101
@libraryofcongress
@AmericanFilmInstitute
@allfamous.org
@FamousBirthdays
No comments:
Post a Comment