John Hench

An employee of The Walt Disney Company for more than 65 years during which saw the creation of nearly every Disney animated feature and theme park Born in Cedar Rapids Iowa Hench attended numerous art and creative schools across the country including the Art Students League of New York the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco and the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles Starting in 1939 as a story artist he weaved his way through the animation department working in areas including backgrounds layout and art direction effects animation and special effects Hench was respected by Walt Disney as one of the studios most gifted artists and teamed him with Salvador Dalí on the animated short Destino a project begun in 1945 that was not completed and released until 2003 Hench was also Disneys official portrait artist of Mickey Mouse painting the companys portraits for Mickeys 25th 50th 60th 70th and 75th birthdays By 1954 Hench was in the studios live action department as lead developer of the hydraulic giant squid in 20000 Leagues Under the Sea helping to win anAcademy Award for Best Special Effects for the film Afterward he moved to WED Enterprises now Walt Disney Imagineering to design attractions for Disneyland Hench went on to design many iconic elements for Disneys theme parks including Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland Space Mountain and contributed to attractions such as the Mickey Mouse Revue Because of his resemblance to Walt Disney and his frequent visits to Disney theme parks he was often asked to sign autographs and pose for pictures with park visitors who mistook Hench for Disney himself Wikipedia