Glenn McQueen

Glenn John McQueen (December 24, 1960 - October 29, 2002) was a Canadian supervisor of digital animation and supervising character animator at Pixar and PDI.

Private life
McQueen graduated from Canada's renowned Sheridan College in 1985. He was sent by Sheridan on a scholarship to the New York Institute of Technology Computer Graphics Lab, where he worked as head of the 3-D production department, which made film effects, TV commercials and scientific visuals.

McQueen was an original member of the Pacific Data Images Character Animation Group which he joined in 1991. He worked on projects like The Last Halloween, Slide Show, Sleepwalkers and Angels in the Outfield.

In 1994 he moved to Pixar Animation Studios (partly due to his interest in Toy Story and his respect for John Lasseter), where he supervised the animation on Pixar's early successes, including Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc..

McQueen also served as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood.

Filmography
Pacific Data Images
 * The Last Halloween (1991) (director) (short film)
 * Slide Show (animator)
 * Sleepwalkers (animator)
 * Angels in the Outfield (1994) (character animator)

Pixar
 * Toy Story (1995) (animator: Sheriff Woody)
 * A Bug's Life (1998) (supervising animator)
 * Toy Story 2 (1999) (supervising animator: Sheriff Woody)
 * Monsters, Inc. (2001) (animator: Boo)
 * Finding Nemo (2003) (dedicated; told at the end of the movie)
 * Cars (2006) (main character dedicated to him)

Family
He and his wife Terry, had a daughter. Glenn was previously married to Audrey Fleisher, a Creative Director in NYC.

Death
On October 29, 2002, McQueen died from melanoma in Berkeley, California, at the age of 41. He died during the filming of Finding Nemo. The film was dedicated to him, as seen before the final credits at the end of the movie. His former colleagues also paid tribute to him making his name the main character in the films Cars and Cars 2 ("Lightning McQueen") [There was also a movie star named Steve McQueen known for a famous car chase in the film Bullitt, real life motor racing exploits, and he also starred in the racing movie Le Mans.] The DVD release of Finding Nemo contains a hidden video, "Glenn McQueen Tribute", which can be accessed through the last page of the Visual Commentary section's index on the DVD.

Quote

 * "I do have the best job in the world, no question. Everybody should be jealous. This is so what you want to do."
 * "Probably the most valuable thing that I’ve gotten from working at Pixar…is making all kinds of friends."

Legacy
Glenn has admirers all over the world for his work, and has been hailed as one of the best animators in the field. Pixar founder John Lasseter called McQueen "the heart and soul of our animation department", and also said that “Glenn is not gone from us. He’s still alive in all of us.”

Pixar Animation Studios has plans underway to open a new studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which will be named the Glenn McQueen Pixar Animation Center named after McQueen who died in 2002. It is planned to be around 20000 sqft and be located in the downtown area of Vancouver. They are looking to hire 75 to 100 people most of them being Canadians. The new studio will also mainly focus on producing short films and TV episodes based on Pixar characters. They have already released job qualifications.