The people were what made my years at Disney special, and in that position, I met many. And we were all working together toward the same goal—making magic. —Becky Fallberg Rebecca "Becky" Fallberg (née Dorner) was an American ink painter, who worked in various departments within Disney, working on nearly 25 feature films starting with Saludos Amigos.
Born Rebecca Dorner in 1923, in Bell, a small town in Los Angeles County, in southern California to Joseph Dorner, an Austro-Hungarian immigrant and Rovena Hilton, a descendant of Plymouth Colony settlers. Her early childhood was spent in Elysian Valley with her brother, George, and she graduated from John Marshall High School in 1942 and studying art for one year at Los Angeles City College.
After joining the Disney Studio as a telephone operator, she was promoted to painter when her future sister-in-law Elinor Fallberg was moved to the Animation Department. Becky worked on animated training and propaganda films, including Victory Through Air Power, which the studio was producing in support of American military efforts during World War II. By 1943, she moved from Ink and Paint to the Animation department, where she copied animators' drawings for the Color Model Department and assisted animation supervisor Johnny Bond. In 1945, she married Elinor's brother, Carl, who was a scriptwriter for the studio, and had one daughter, Carla.
In 1947, she became a blue sketch artist for the Layout and Background department for three years before returning to the Ink and Paint Department as paint matcher and, later, final checker, ensuring that animation cels were properly drawn and colored. During the 1960s and early 70s, she worked in the newly-developed Xerox Camera department, followed by the Educational Films department, headed by Les Clark, where she and her supervisor performed all Ink and Paint tasks. She was later promoted to manager of the Ink and Paint department in 1975.
Fallberg remained head of the department until 1986, when she retired after more than 45 years at the studio. Now retired, Becky devoted herself to her passion for architecture by volunteering as a guide at the Gamble House in Pasadena. On October 12, 2000, she became a Disney Legend and in 2005 was awarded an Animation Guild's Animation Award.
At the age of 83, she died on October 9, 2007 from chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
Filmography[]
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Saludos Amigos | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| Pluto at the Zoo | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| 1943 | The Spirit of '43 | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| Pluto and the Armadillo | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| Victory Vehicles | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| The Old Army Game | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| Victory Through Air Power | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| 1944 | How to Be a Sailor | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| The Three Caballeros | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| Donald Duck and the Gorilla | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| Contrary Condor | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| Commando Duck | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| How to Play Football | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| 1945 | The Clock Watcher | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| Californy 'er Bust | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| No Sail | Color modeler (uncredited) | |
| Hockey Homicide | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| Cured Duck | Color modeler Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| 1946 | Make Mine Music | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| Song of the South | Ink and paint (uncredited) | |
| Donald's Double Trouble | Color modeler (uncredited) | |
| Double Dribble | Color modeler (uncredited) | |
| 1947 | Fun and Fancy Free | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| Crazy with the Heat | Color modeler (uncredited) | |
| 1948 | Melody Time | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| So Dear to My Heart | Painter (uncredited) | |
| 1949 | The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad | Painter (uncredited) |
| 1950 | Cinderella | Painter (uncredited) |
| 1951 | Alice in Wonderland | Painter (uncredited) |
| 1953 | Peter Pan | Painter (uncredited) |
| Ben and Me | Painter (uncredited) | |
| 1955 | Lady and the Tramp | Ink and paint (uncredited) |
| 1957 | The Truth About Mother Goose | Ink and paint artist (uncredited) |
| 1958 | Paul Bunyan | Ink and paint artist (uncredited) |
| 1959 | Sleeping Beauty | Inker Painter (uncredited) |
| Donald in Mathmagic Land | Ink and paint artist (uncredited) | |
| 1960 | Goliath II | Painter (uncredited) |
| 1961 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | Xerox operator (uncredited) |
| 1962 | A Symposium on Popular Songs | Xerographer (uncredited) |
| 1963 | The Sword in the Stone | Xerox operator (uncredited) |
| 1964 | Mary Poppins | Xerox (uncredited) |
| 1967 | The Jungle Book | Xerox operator (uncredited) |
| 1969 | It's Tough to Be a Bird | Xerox (uncredited) |
| 1970 | Dad, Can I Borrow the Car? | Xerox (uncredited) |
| The Aristocats | Xerox operator (uncredited) | |
| 1971 | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | Xerox check/inking (uncredited) |
| 1973 | Robin Hood | Xerox check/inking (uncredited) |
| 1977 | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | Xerox processor (uncredited): "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" "Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too" |
| The Rescuers | Ink and paint manager (uncredited) | |
| Pete's Dragon | Ink and paint manager (uncredited) | |
| 1978 | The Small One | Ink and paint manager (uncredited) |
| 1981 | The Fox and the Hound | Ink and paint manager (uncredited) |
| 1983 | Mickey's Christmas Carol | Ink and paint manager (uncredited) |
| 1985 | The Black Cauldron | Ink and paint manager |
| 1986 | The Great Mouse Detective | Ink and paint manager (uncredited) |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In 1936, her family moved to a home in Silver Lake, that overlooked the old Walt Disney Studio on Hyperion Avenue. To help with expenses, her father, an electrician for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, rented some rooms to the artists at the studio.
- Fallberg managed to land a job at Disney thanks to her old school friend Audrey, whose mother, Dorothy Ann Blank, was at the time, a librarian at the studios.
- During production of The Black Cauldron, a new system for transferring celluloid sheets onto film had just been set up, nicknamed the APT. It was supposed to facilitate the photography of each drawing. Fallberg warned, however, that it would be better to test this new technology on a short film rather than on a feature film. However, she was not listened to. By transferring the celluloids onto film, the colors were altered as she had predicted. The teams then had to adapt, changing the color palette and repainting the thousands of celluloids already completed.
External links[]
Becky Fallberg on IMDb- Becky Fallberg at D23, The Official Disney Fan Club
- Fallberg's LA Times Obituary
- Chronique Disney - Becky Fallberg
