John Arthur Sibley was an American animator, who worked for Disney throughout the 1930s to the 1960s.
Sibley was born in Danville, Illinois and became interested in art in high school. He later attended Corcoran School of Art in Washington and at the Chicago Institute of Arts. After struggling some in his career as an artist John just happened to stumble upon an ad from Walt Disney Animation Studios asking for artists. He begun work as an inbetweener the closing months of the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After working as an assistant animator for 3 years Sibley got his first screen credit as an animator on The Reluctant Dragon.
Throughout the 1940s, Sibley animated several Goofy shorts. His work stood out as an animator for the fact that he used caricatured movement to show how something feels. Although not realistic and very cartoony, it is believable because of the emotion it shows. His also animated characters and sequences for Make Mine Music, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and The Sword in the Stone.
Sadly though, the quality of Sibley's work declined and he came to the studio less often until in 1965, he was laid off. His last contribution was Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, and he also stopped doing magazine gags on the side. Sibley kept a low profile up until his death from a stroke on February 15, 1973.
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