Collin Bruce Campbell was an American artist, who worked for the Disney as a Layout and Background artist for feature films and later an art director and concept artist for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Campbell was born in 1926 in St. Charles, Michigan and soon moved to Glendale, California where he attended half-day sessions at Hoover High School while working on the Disney lot as a messenger for their Traffic Department in 1943. A year later, he was drafted into the navy during World War II. In his unit was fellow mail clerk and future animator Walter Peregoy.
Upon his discharge in 1946, Campbell returned to the studio for a year before leaving again to study for four years at the School of Allied Arts. To put himself through school, he worked at the campus art store and took custom framing jobs. In 1952, he returned to the studio as an apprentice animator for fives months before leaving again to study for a year at the Académie Julian in Paris, France.
Coming back for good in November 1953, Campbell worked as an inbetweener before joining the Layout Department where he worked on features, such as Lady and the Tramp, working with art director Bruce Bushman with designs for sets on Mickey Mouse Club, and later helped pioneer the visual design of the new Xerox camera method in his work on Goliath II and One Hundred and One Dalmatians, before transferring to WED Enterprises (Imagineering).
His initial assignment was creating the interior and models for the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland. Other projects included Ford Magic Skyway, Carousel of Progress, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Blue Bayou Restaurant, and It's a Small World. For Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, Campbell developed much of the overall feel for the resort and Magic Kingdom as well as created concept art for the resort hotels, the Fort Wilderness Railroad, and unbuilt concepts for Treasure Island. He also served as field art director on Tom Sawyer Island, and designed the unique entrance and queue for Florida's own Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
Later work included renderings and concept art for the Disney-MGM Studios park and illustrations of a proposed 1920s-era Main Street, U.S.A. for Disneyland Paris. After serving as art director for Disney's Typhoon Lagoon, he retired in 1990—only to briefly return to supervise a renovation of Tom Sawyer Island at Disneyland.
Campbell passed way in 2011. He was survived by his wife Lois of Lighthouse Point, Florida. In 2013, he was posthumously honored as a Disney Legend.
Filmography[]
| Year | Film | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1953 | Peter Pan | Breakdown/inbetween artist (uncredited) |
| 1955 | Lady and the Tramp | Layout |
| Mickey Mouse Club | Set designer (uncredited) | |
| 1955-1957 | The Magical World of Disney | Layout designer (uncredited) |
| 1957 | The Truth About Mother Goose | Background artist |
| 1958 | The Light in the Forest | Matte artist (uncredited) |
| 1959 | Darby O'Gill and the Little People | Art stylist (uncredited) |
| Donald in Mathmagic Land | Background artist | |
| 1960 | Goliath II | Layout artist |
| 1961 | One Hundred and One Dalmatians | Layout stylist |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Campbell shares a name with Scottish actor Colin Campbell who voiced Mole in The Wind in the Willows segment of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad and had a minor role in Mary Poppins.
- He helped design the fabled Club 33, for which he hand-painted a scene of the Mississippi River and Jackson Square on the inside lid of Lillian Disney's harpsichord.
