Raymond Walter "Ray" Huffine was an American background artist and watercolor artist, who worked for the Disney Studios from the 1930s to 1955.
Born in 1905 to Walter R. Huffine and Eva Chezem,[1] his mother died of tuberculosis when he was five. The family later moved to Butte, Montana where his dad worked as a teamster. He graduated from the local high school in 1923 where he was the art editor of the public high school annual, The Mountaineer. He became a bookkeeper for a glassware company in Butte as well as a clerk at the Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company. He moved to Los Angeles in 1927 and studied at the Otis Art Institute while also working as a hotel clerk.
He eventually found work at Charles Mintz's studio as a manager for the background art department and supervised the Krazy Kat and Scrappy cartoons through Columbia Pictures. During this time, he married his first wife, Beulah, who ran a ballet studio. Huffine was also a fine arts painter whose works were exhibited throughout the Los Angeles area. He was also involved with the American Federation of Musicians - Local 47, a union which represented film studio musicians.
Meanwhile, Walt Disney was in need of artists with an ambitious cartoon project. Huffine was hired and later worked as a background painter for all the early Disney features from Pinocchio up until Lady and the Tramp. He took time away from animation during World War II, working as a ship builder. He left the studio in late 1950s and married artist and inker Charlotte Darling Adams in 1959.
He was hired at the Walter Lantz studio by early 1960 working on the Woody Woodpecker cartoons and died in 1967.
Filmography[]
| Year | Film | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1937 | Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs | In-betweener Backgrounds (uncredited) |
| 1940 | Pinocchio | Backgrounds |
| Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip | Backgrounds (uncredited) | |
| Fantasia | Background artist: "The Pastoral Symphony" | |
| 1941 | The Reluctant Dragon | Background artist |
| Dumbo | Backgrounds (uncredited) | |
| 1942 | Bambi | Backgrounds |
| Der Fuehrer's Face | Background artist (uncredited) | |
| 1943 | Victory Through Air Power | Background artist |
| 1944 | How to Play Football | Background artist (uncredited) |
| The Three Caballeros | Background artist | |
| 1945 | African Diary | Background artist |
| The Legend of Coyote Rock | Background artist | |
| 1946 | Make Mine Music | Backgrounds: "Trees" "Bumble Boogie" "Willie the Operatic Whale" |
| In Dutch | Background artist | |
| Song of the South | Background artist | |
| 1947 | Crazy with the Heat | Background artist |
| Fun and Fancy Free | Background artist: "Bongo" | |
| Mail Dog | Background artist | |
| 1948 | Melody Time | Background artist |
| So Dear to My Heart | Background artist | |
| 1949 | The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad | Backgrounds: "The Wind in the Willows" |
| 1950 | Cinderella | Backgrounds |
| The Brave Engineer | Background artist | |
| Morris the Midget Moose | Background artist (credit only on reissue print) | |
| 1951 | Chicken in the Rough | Background artist |
| Plutopia | Background artist | |
| Alice in Wonderland | Backgrounds | |
| Get Rich Quick | Background artist | |
| Fathers Are People | Background artist | |
| Lambert the Sheepish Lion | Background artist | |
| 1952 | Two Chips and a Miss | Background artist |
| The Little House | Background artist | |
| 1953 | Peter Pan | Background artist |
| Rugged Bear | Background artist | |
| Canvas Back Duck | Background artist | |
| 1954 | Spare the Rod | Background artist |
| Dragon Around | Background artist | |
| Grin and Bear It | Background artist | |
| The Flying Squirrel | Background artist | |
| 1955 | 'No Hunting | Background artist |
| Lady and the Tramp | Backgrounds | |
| Bearly Asleep | Background artist | |
| The Magical World of Disney | Background artist | |
| 1956 | In the Bag | Background artist |
Trivia[]
- While working on Fantasia, Huffine couldn't find a right color for a background in The Pastoral Symphony until, while eating his lunch, he smeared boysenberry jam over the background and the results were highly satisfactory.[2]
- A former Disney employee by the name of Carolyn Jean Huffine was married to an LA private investigator Kenneth Huffine. Although, it is unclear whether the latter was related to Ray.
