Joe Grant

Joe Grant born on May 15, 1908 and died on May 6, 2005 was a Disney artist and writer.

Grant was born in New York City and began working for the Disney Studios in 1933 beginning with the Mickey Mouse short Mickey's Gala Premiere. He also created the Witch for Walt's first film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs released in 1937 and also helped co-write Dumbo released in 1941 and also led development for Pinocchio and Fantasia both released in 1940. During World War II he worked on the Academy Award winning cartoon Der Fuehrer's Face but left Disney Studios in 1949 to start his own greeting card business. Grant returned to Disney in 1989 and worked on Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), and Pocahontas (1995), Mulan (1998), and Fantasia 2000 (2000). He also worked on Pixar's Monsters Inc. Sadly on May 6th 2005, while working at his studio on the animated short Lorenzo, Joe Grant died of a heart attack at the age of 96 just 9 days short of his 97th Birthday. Chicken Little (2005) which was released a year after his death and the last Disney film he worked on was dedicated to him. It was said on the Disney DVD of Lady and the Tramp that Grant owned a dog named Lady who the main character of the movie was based on.

A book about both Joe Grant and the late Joe Ranft who died in a car accident on August 16th, 2005 just 3 months after Joe Grant's passing entitled Two Guys Named Joe: Master Animation Storytellers by Animation Historian John Canemaker was published on August 3rd, 2010.