Edward Robert "Ted" Sears Jr. was an animator and story writer for Disney during its early years. As his writing partner, Winston Hibler, once put it, "Perhaps Ted's greatest talent was his own unique brand of humor. It was warm, gentle humor; there was never a barb in it. And his was the key, to Ted's whole personality. He was the kindest man I ever knew. He lived with laughter and without malice. He was generous in all things. His talents could be had for the asking. No job was too small, none too big. And this all adds up to the fact that through his talents and his personal virtues. Ted was able to achieve two of the goals he set for himself in life: he made good pictures and he made good friends."
Born in 1900, he spent most of his childhood in New York where he attended a trade school and became a sign painter to help support his family and later lettered title cards for silent movies, worked with trick photography, drew ads, and even made props for early two-reel comedies. He even came up with plot ideas and gags for silent film comic, Charlie Bowers. He eventually joined Max Fleischer's organization where he contributed story ideas as well as animation.
In 1931, Walt Disney hired Ted on a long term contract not as an animator but as a senior writer, (the head of Disney Story Department) and in the twenty-seven years that followed no one ever challenged his position. He was responsible for writing dialogue and story lines for virtually every important production the Disney Studio, such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Bambi, Dumbo, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. He also co-wrote narration for many of the Disney nature films with Winston Hibler, and later did a number of the Disney TV shows.
As part of the Disney's company's original story department he is one of the men attributed in the creation of storyboarding now an industry standard for not just animated film but also live action.
Sears died in 1958 during which, he worked on the story for Sleeping Beauty which was released the following year. He was survived by his wife Violet, who passed in 1976, and his daughter, Cindy who was interviewed in regards to her father's role in Walt's goodwill tour of South America for the documentary, Walt & El Grupo.
Filmography[]
Trivia[]
- His sister-in-law, Irene, was the Disney family nurse for many years attending to both Walt's brother and mother
- Sears had initially provided the voice of the titular character in Pinocchio before the character was reimagined and child actor Dickie Jones was cast as the voice of the character instead.
- He appeared on-screen in the documentary South of the Border with Disney.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Disney staff 1931 (1).jpg (65 KB)")
Seated, from left: David Hand, Sears, Dick Lundy, Burt Gillett, Walt Disney
.jpg "Disney staff 1931 (2).jpg (64 KB)")
Seated from left: King, Lundy, Sears, Ferguson, de Tremaudan, Jackson, Clark, Gillett, Lewis
