Walter "Walt" Stanchfield was an American animator, writer, and teacher. Stanchfield is known for work on a series of classic animated feature films at Walt Disney Productions/Walt Disney Feature Animation and his mentoring of Disney animators. He often assisted Ollie Johnston and John Lounsbery.
Stanchfield was born in 1919 in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from high school in 1937, he would attend Chouinard Art Institute, the prototype for Cal Arts and the school that held classes to strengthen the drawing of the Disney Animators. Stanchfield worked as an animator at the Charles Mintz Studio. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy. Returning to California, he briefly worked at the Walter Lantz Studio before joining Walt Disney Productions to work on the full-length animated feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 1947 assisting Lounsbery. He continued to work with the veteran animator on films like Cinderella, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, and Sleeping Beauty. After ten years with Lounsbery, he moved on to work under Ollie Johnston for another ten years.
His later career included work on every subsequent Disney animated feature including his work as a character animator on The Jungle Book and The Aristocats. On The Rescuers, Stanchfield went back to assisting Ollie one last time before being promoted to the position of coordinating animator. In 1987, Stanchfield served as the animation consultant on Who Framed Roger Rabbit. His final film for Disney was Oliver & Company in 1988.
In the 1970s, Stanchfield and Eric Larson created a training program for new animators at Disney studios. The program included weekly drawing classes and lectures. Stanchfied's students included numerous prominent animators, such as Brad Bird, John Lasseter, Don Bluth, Joe Ranft, John Musker, Ron Clements, Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, and Mark Henn.
Stanchfield continued to come once a month to Disney to lecture well into the 1990s before passing away in 2000. In 2009, Stanchfield's lecture notes were compiled into the two-volume set Drawn to Life: 20 Golden Years of Disney Master Classes.
Disney Filmography
| Year | Film | Position |
| 1949 | The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad | assistant animator |
| 1950 | Cinderella | assistant animator - uncredited |
| 1953 | Peter Pan | assistant animator - uncredited |
| 1955 | Lady and the Tramp | assistant animator - uncredited |
| 1959 | Sleeping Beauty | animator - uncredited |
| 1963 | The Sword in the Stone | animator - uncredited |
| 1967 | The Jungle Book | Character Animator |
| 1970 | The Aristocats | Character Animator |
| 1971 | Bedknobs and Broomsticks | animator - uncredited |
| 1977 | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh | Animator: "Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree" "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day" |
| 1977 | The Rescuers | Key Assistant Animator |
| 1978 | The Small One | Assistant Animation Supervisor |
| 1981 | The Fox and the Hound | Coordinating Animator |
| 1983 | Mickey's Christmas Carol | The Creative Talent Of |
| 1985 | The Black Cauldron | Key Coordinating Animator |
| 1986 | The Great Mouse Detective | Coordinating Animator |
| 1988 | Who Framed Roger Rabbit | Animation Consultant |
| 1988 | Oliver & Company | Production Consultant |
| 2001 | Atlantis: The Lost Empire | Special Thanks |
