Cause of death heart attack Role Animator Occupation Animator Died June 3, 1951 | Years active 1924-1940 Movies Broadway Folly Name Rollin Hamilton | |
 | ||
Born October 28, 1898 ( 1898-10-28 ) South Dakota People also search for Walter Lantz, Bill Nolan, Manuel Moreno, Tom Palmer | ||
Bosko's Soda Fountain (1931)
Rollin Clare (Ham) Hamilton (October 28, 1898, South Dakota – June 3, 1951 Los Angeles, California) was an early motion picture animator. He was Walt Disney's first hire, and from 1924 to 1928, he worked as an animator for the Alice Comedies and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit shorts. In 1928, Charles Mintz bought out the contracts of the animators (including Hamilton) and the rights to the Oswald character from Disney. A year later, Hamilton helped fellow animators Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising establish their own animation studio. He was one of the primary animators for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. From 1929 to 1934, he animated the Bosko character in the Harman and Ising studio.
He was one of the few animators who remained with Leon Schlesinger after Harman and Ising left in 1933. In Schlesinger's studio, he animated Buddy, Beans the Cat, and Porky Pig. He then worked as a freelance animator until 1940.
He died in 1951 of a heart attack.