Wilfred Jackson

Wilfred Jackson (Chicago, Illinois, January 24, 1906 – Newport Beach, California, August 7, 1988) was an American animator, arranger, composer and director best known for his work on the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series of cartoons and the two segments Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria of Fantasia from Walt Disney Productions. He was also instrumental in developing the system with which Disney added music and sound to Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. Several of the Silly Symphony shorts he directed, including The Old Mill (1937), won Academy Awards during the 1930s. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 he directed sequences in many of the major Disney animated features up to Lady and the Tramp in 1955, including all of the animated sequences in Song of the South (1946). He later moved into television, producing and directing for Disney's Disneyland series. After continuing health issues he retired in 1961. Wilfred Jackson died at age 82 in 1988.