- Born
- Died
- Birth nameRuth Irene Tompson
- Ruth Tompson was born on July 22, 1910 in Portland, Maine, USA. She is known for The Lord of the Rings (1978), Popeye the Sailor (1960) and Metamorphoses (1978). She died on October 10, 2021 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
- Family moved to Los Angeles when she was 8. They lived down the street from Walt and Roy Disney, who were starting their studio out of their uncle's garage.
- After training as an inker, Tompson was transferred to the Paint Department, where she helped with Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
- The skilled animator would later retire from The Walt Disney Company after she worked on just about every animated feature for the company up through The Rescuers. Though she would go on to work for other studios for another ten years, Tompson once said, "It is always my Disney experience that is filled with truly unforgettable memories.".
- As a young animator at the Disney Studios in the mid-1950s, Floyd Norman noted of this remarkable woman, "Ruthie was our computer before computers were invented. Whatever the technical problem, Ruthie could usually solve it!".
- At the time of her death she was the last known living person to have been involved in any capacity with the making of the first four Disney films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia and Dumbo.
- [speaking in 2020] I'm a dummy for living this long. I don't know why I am still here, but I know that I don't want to be revered for how old I am, I want to be known for who I am.
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