#yoji kuri

10 years ago, Cartoon Brew had an article about animators from the Golden Age and beyond over a certain age still living.

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/animators/who-are-the-oldest-living-animation-artists-88196.html

Unfortunately, the lion's share of that group have since passed away, save for a handful of names. For this post, I would like to highlight (in age order) those from studios like Disney, Warner Brothers as well as independent bases that are around today who represent the last living links to old school animation. These include artists, directors and writers. Exclusive voice actors or animated music composers are not counted.

Vera Linnecar (b. 1923) Halas/Bachelor, Bob Godfrey

Enid Wizig (b. 1923) Warner Brothers (Update: Passed Away on February 12, 2026)

Joe Hale (b. 1925) Disney (Update: Passed Away on January 29, 2025)

Lillian Schwartz (b. 1927) Independent (Update: Passed Away on October 12, 2024)

Witold Giersz (b. 1927) Independent

Bob Singer (b. 1928) Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera

Yoji Kuri (b. 1928) Independent (Update: Passed Away on November 24, 2024)

Robert Verrall (b. 1928) National Film Board of Canada (Update: Passed Away on January 17, 2025)

Peter Maddocks (b. 1928) Independent (Update: Passed Away on November 20, 2024)

Zdeňka Deitchová (b. 1928) Gene Deitch

Art Leonardi (b. 1929) Warner Brothers, MGM

Jules Feiffer (b. 1929) Paramount, Terrytoons (Update: Passed Away on January 17, 2025)

Don Iwerks (b. 1929) Disney

Phil Roman (b. 1930) Chuck Jones, Fox, Independent

Howard Beckerman (b. 1930) Famous Studios, Terrytoons, Independent (Update: Passed Away on June 29, 2024)

R.O. Blechman (b. 1930) Terrytoons, Independent

Stan Hayward (b. 1930) Bob Godfrey

Joseph Koenig (b. 1930) National Film Board of Canada

Jack Heiter (b. 1930) Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon, UPA

Rein Raamat (b. 1931) Independent

Ed Seeman (b. 1931) Paramount (Update: Passed Away on February 14, 2025)

Fred Wolf (b. 1932) Independent

Brian Trueman (b. 1932) BBC (Update: Passed Away on September 1, 2024)

Fumio Kurokawa (b. 1932) Nippon Animation (Update: Passed Away on April 10, 2024)

Yvonne Andersen (b. 1932) Independent

Masaki Tsuji (b. 1932) Mushi, Toen, TMS

Dean Tavoularis (b. 1932) Disney

Doris A. Plough (b. 1932) Disney, Don Bluth, Hanna-Barbera, Fox

Inessa Kovalevskaya (b. 1933) Soyuzmultfilm

Boris Kolar (b. 1933) Independent (no other photo available)

the midnight parasites (1972)