The Nine Old Men were Walt Disney's finest animators and some of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. Milt Kahl was the draughtsman of the group, his angular style crucial to the look of movies like 101 Dalmations, The Jungle Book and The Sword in the Stone.
Milt Kahl: Designed Shere Khan, King Louie in The Jungle Book
Milton Erwin Kahl was born on March 22, 1909, in San Francisco. He dropped out of high school to become a magazine illustrator and cartoonist, inspired by Ronald Searle and Pablo Picasso. While honing his craft, Kahl retouched photos and pasted layouts at the Oakland Post Enquirer, and the San Francisco Bulletin.
After seeing "The Three Little Pigs," Kahl joined Disney in 1934. He was an assistant animator on "Mickey's Circus," "Lonesome Ghosts" and "The Ugly Duckling," which won the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1940.
But it was when Kahl worked on 1940's Pinocchio that he came to the attention of Disney's senior staff. Ollie Johnston remembered the first time he heard about Kahl.
"One morning," Johnston said, "Freddie Moore burst into my room saying, 'Hey, you ought to see the drawings [of Pinocchio] this guy Milt Kahl is doing.'"
After viewing Kahl's work, Walt Disney made him supervise the animators drawing the title character. After that, Kahl was a senior animator at The Mouse House, drawing characters like Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox and Brer Bear in Song of the South, the title character in Peter Pan, Tramp in Lady and the Tramp, and Roger and Anita Radcliffe in 101 Dalmations, and Shere Khan and King Louie for The Jungle Book.
But it was Walt's death that marked the beginning of the end for Milt Kahl at Disney. Disenchanted with poisonous politics and needless budget cutting in Animation, and realizing that his contributions weren't prized in the post-Walt era, Kahl quit after completing work on 1977's The Rescuers.
He spent the rest of his life lecturing on animation before dying of pneumonia on April 19, 1987.
Personal Perspectives on Milt Kahl
Milt Kahl was best known for his brilliance and his humility. When Wolfgang Reitherman first saw Kahl's rough drawings of Merlin and Madame Min* for 1963's The Sword in the Stone, he reportedly said, "These things look so beautiful, they could hang in a museum."
Kahl's response? "Awww . . . You're full of it!"
However, he had a volcanic temper. Former Disney animator Floyd Norman transferred to Kahl's group for 1959's Sleeping Beauty. While introducing himself to Kahl's assistants, Norman heard a bellow of rage from the office next door.
"Dammit!" roared Kahl. "Doesn't any %#*$!?# here know how to draw?"
Despite that terrifying introduction, Norman worked for Kahl for the next seven years.
"I would often pass his office door and see him sitting at his desk staring into space," Norman told Jim Hill Media. "Hours would pass, and Kahl would not have made a single drawing. Then . . . he would . . . fill several pages with inspired sketches. It was as though the scene was already completed in his head, and all he had to do was transfer it to paper.
"At the end of the day, young scavengers would raid the animator's waste baskets for discarded drawings. A late night visit to Kahl's office would prove fruitless . . . the master animator simply never made a bad drawing."
Kahl also hated having music or audio distractions while he was working, telling protegé Richard Williams that, "I'm not smart enough to do two things at once."
Norman said that the first rule of working in the animation wing was "never disturb Milt Kahl while he was working . . . The slightest noise would prove a distraction, and the irascible animator would soon visit those who talked too loudly, or dared to crank up the radio.
"I still remember (him) standing at our office door . . . as he shouted, 'Where's that blankety blank noise coming from?' From then on, music lovers in D-wing were advised to invest in headphones."
But Kahl's genius was undeniable.
"Milt Kahl's contribution to the art of Disney animation is immeasurable, and his work will continue to delight millions for years to come," said Norman. "If indeed, animators could be considered royalty, there's no doubt Milt Kahl would be king."
(Thanks to IMDb, Jim Hill Media and the Disney website for information for this article)
Next Up: The youngest, and wackiest, of the Nine Old Men, Ward Kimball
*Fun Fact: Many accounts erroniously claim that it was rough sketches of Merlin and Madame Medusa that inspired the exchange between Reitherman and Kahl. Although Kahl did eventually design Madame Medusa, that was for The Rescuers.
Dominic von Riedemann - Dominic is the Animated Film Feature Writer, and winner of 11 Suite 101 Editors' Choice Awards.
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