Hugh Patridge Hennesy was an American layout artist and art director, who worked at Disney during the company's early years and was one of the earliest art directors there.
Hennesy was born in Lexington, Ohio and spent his early years drawing on the backs of books and on the wall paper. After high school, he attended the Corcoran Art School for two years. He gained art job through newspapers in Washington D.C. His art was used in travel sections, advertisements, and a column called "Do You Know". He later served in World War I before returning to D.C. and found steady work through the Washington Times from 1926-1931 and head of the Times Herald's art department.
He joined the Disney studios in 1932 as a layout artist where he worked on the Silly Symphonies before becoming an art director for the first animated features produced by the studio, starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In Snow White, according to his step-granddaughter, the face of the Magic Mirror was a distorted portrait of Hugh that he posed for. He continued as a layout artist throughout the next decade where helped to make more animated features and educational shorts. He had previously been married to Betty Price in 1924 and divorced in 1934, with whom he had one son and later married the Disney studio librarian Helen Deforce Ludwig in 1937. [1]
Hennesy died suddenly of a heart attack in 1954 while on vacation in Death Valley National Park, California. Walt Disney attended his funeral.
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Trivia[]
- His ex-wife, Betty, would later go on to marry Disney animator Tom Codrick.
- His son Dale went on to become an art director in his own right with films, such as The King and I (1955), Fantastic Voyage, Logan's Run, and Dirty Harry.[2]
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