Ted Berman, animator and director of Disney cartoons, including “Bambi” and “Fantasia,” died here Sunday at 81.
Wanting to draw from the time he was a child, he won many newspaper competitions. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute, forerunner of the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia.
Mr. Berman then landed a job in Disney’s animation department in 1940, and he remained with the studio for 45 years. He also was a fine arts painter.
Initially a character animator, Mr. Berman worked on the beloved deer “Bambi,” characters in “Alice in Wonderland” and the visual-musical masterpiece “Fantasia” as well as “Lady and the Tramp,” “Peter Pan” and “Mary Poppins.”
He took special pride in working on four films up for Academy Awards: “Paul Bunyan,” nominated in 1958; “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too,” up in 1974; “It’s Tough to Be a Bird,” winner of the best short film Oscar in 1969; and “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” which won for best visual effects in 1972.
After retiring from Disney, he returned to painting.
