A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
A. Kendall O'Connor
Arthur Kendall O'Connor
Ken O'Connor
Birthplace:
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Born:
June 7, 1908
Died:
May 27, 1998
Born in Perth, Australia, on June 7, 1908, Ken studied commercial art at Melbourne Technical College and fine art at the Australian National Gallery in Melbourne. In 1930, he emigrated with his family to the United States, settling in San Francisco, where he continued his education at the California School of Art. Among the most memorable images Ken created for the screen were the magical coach in Cinderella, the marching cards in Alice in Wonderland, and the dancing hippos in Fantasia. His other credits include Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo,Make Mine Music, Melody Time, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, and more. During World War II, Ken worked on training and educational films that Disney produced for the United States government, includingFood Will Win the War, as well as theatrical cartoons such as Education for Death. Later, he provided layouts for the first 3-D cartoon, Adventures in Music: Melody. He also served as art director on three “space factuals” for Disney’s television programs Man in Space, Man and the Moon, and Mars and Beyond. He also art directed the first CinemaScope cartoon, Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, which won an Academy Award® in 1953. After more than 30 years with the company, Ken retired in 1978. He continued to lend his imagination and artistry, however, to such projects as Epcot Center’s Universe of Energy and World of Motion attractions. He also consulted on the Back to Neverland [sic] film, featured in the Magic of Disney Animation attraction at the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park in Florida, which introduced park guests to the animation process. Ken also taught layout and art direction at the California Institute of the Arts, helping influence an entire generation of today’s animation greats. -D23
Animation:
1935 Music Land
Art Direction:
1935 Music Land
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1940 Pinocchio
1942 Bambi
1953 Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom
1965 Freewayphobia
1965 Goofy's Freeway Troubles
1968 Steps Towards Maturity and Health
1969 Physical Fitness and Good Health
1969 The Social Side of Health
Layout:
1935 Music Land
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1939 The Practical Pig
1940 Pinocchio
1942 Bambi
1942 The New Spirit
1943 Donald's Tire Trouble
1950 Cinderella
1953 Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom
1965 Freewayphobia
1965 Goofy's Freeway Troubles
1968 Steps Towards Maturity and Health
1969 Physical Fitness and Good Health
1969 The Social Side of Health
Layout Supervisor:
1935 Music Land
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1939 The Practical Pig
1940 Pinocchio
1942 Bambi
1942 The New Spirit
1943 Donald's Tire Trouble
1950 Cinderella
1953 Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom
1955 Contrasts in Rhythm
1965 Freewayphobia
1965 Goofy's Freeway Troubles
1968 Steps Towards Maturity and Health
1969 Physical Fitness and Good Health
1969 The Social Side of Health
Visual Development:
1935 Music Land
1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
1939 The Practical Pig
1940 Pinocchio
1942 Bambi
1942 The New Spirit
1943 Donald's Tire Trouble
1950 Cinderella
1953 Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom
1955 Contrasts in Rhythm
1965 Freewayphobia
1965 Goofy's Freeway Troubles
1968 Steps Towards Maturity and Health
1969 Physical Fitness and Good Health
1969 The Social Side of Health
1989 The Little Mermaid
Color Grading:
1985 Amazing Stories
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.