Glen Keane
Glen Keane (born April 13, 1954) is an American animator, director, author and illustrator. As a character animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios for 38 years (1974–2012), he worked on feature films including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan and Tangled. He received the 1992 Annie Award for character animation and the 2007 Winsor McCay Award for lifetime contribution to the field of animation. He was named a Disney Legend in 2013, a year after retiring from the studio.
Glen Keane
April 13, 1954
Animator
Author
Illustrator
Cartoonist
1973–present
Filmation (1973)
Walt Disney Animation Studios (1974–2012)
Claire Keane
Max Keane
In 2017, Keane directed Dear Basketball, an animated short film based on Kobe Bryant's retirement poem in The Players' Tribune, for which Keane and Bryant received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 90th Academy Awards.
Early life[edit]
Keane was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of cartoonist Bil Keane, creator of The Family Circus, and Australian-born Thelma Keane (née Carne). He was raised in Paradise Valley, Arizona[1] as a Roman Catholic.[2]
Keane's interest in art developed from observing his father's work as a cartoonist.[3] (Keane's father based his Family Circus character of Billy on Glen's younger self.) To encourage Glen to draw, his father gave him a copy of Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy, and recommended he observe body forms and practice creative approaches to life drawing.
After graduating from high school at Brophy College Preparatory in 1972,[4] Keane applied to the California Institute of the Arts School of Art, rather than accepting a football scholarship to another college. His application was accidentally sent to the Program in Experimental Animation (then called Film Graphics), where he was mentored by Jules Engel.[3]
Personal life[edit]
In 1975, during the production of his debut film, Keane married Linda Hesselroth. They are the parents of design artist Claire Keane and computer graphics artist Max Keane.
Keane has been cited among artists with aphantasia, a condition characterized by an inability to form mental images.[22][23][24] He is a Christian.[25][26]
• Original illustrations from his children's books at AdamRaccoon.com