Franklin Thomas (September 5, 1913, Fresno, California - September 8, 2004, Flintridge, California) was one of Walt Disney's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men.

He graduated from Stanford University, attended Chouinard Art Institute, then joined The Walt Disney Company on September 24, 1934 as employee number 224. There he animated dozens of feature films and shorts, and also was a member of the Dixieland band Firehouse Five Plus Two .

Among the characters and scenes Thomas animated were the dwarfs crying over Snow White's "dead" body, Pinocchio singing at the marionette theatre, Bambi and Thumper on the ice, the evil step mother in Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, Lady and the Tramp eating spaghetti, the three fairies in Sleeping Beauty, and Merlin and Arthur as squirrels in The Jungle Book.

He retired from Disney on January 31, 1978.

Thomas authored, with fellow Disney legend Ollie Johnston, the comprehensive book The Illusion Of Life, first published by Abbeville Press in 1981. Regarded as the definitive authority on traditional hand-drawn character animation (particularly in the Disney style), the book has been republished numerous times, and is considered "the bible" among character animators.

Thomas's last appearance in an animated film before his death was in The Incredibles, although he only voiced a character, not animate. He plays alongside his Ollie Johnston as two old men saying "That's old school..." "Yeah, no school like the old school.". On the Director's commentary, Brad Bird says that only the night before Frank Thomas passed away, and pays his homage.

Other books

• The Disney Villain (ISBN 1562827928)
• Walt Disney's Bambi: The Sketchbook Series (ISBN 1557093423)
• Walt Disney's Peter Pan: The Sketchbook Series (ISBN 1557093458)

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