It is often said that life is a game. If so, what defines winning that game? How about living practically an entire century, spending your life doing what you love and sharing that passion with others, and leaving a worldwide legacy of happiness and wonder for countless generations to come? If so, Disney Legend Blaine Gibson went out a winner at 4:10 AM the morning of July 5, 2015, peacefully, in his sleep. Earlier, he’d watched 101 Dalmatians with his grandson. He was 97 years old.
Blaine Gibson was born in Rocky Ford, Colorado, on February 11, 1918, but he didn’t stay there. He dropped out of college to work as an in-betweener for The Walt Disney Studios in 1939, but took classes in sculpture at nearby Pasadena City College. It remained his hobby while he strove to become a great animator, and he was, working on Disney masterpieces such as Fantasia, Bambi, Song of the South, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, and One Hundred and One Dalmatians. Walt put the brakes on his animation career after seeing some of Blaine’s sculptures at an art show in 1954. He recruited Gibson to come to WED Enterprises, as Imagineering was known back then, to help him to create Disneyland. Gibson moved back and forth between the two until 1961, when he became a full-time Imagineer.
Gibson sculpted figures and also worked on audio-animatronics for attractions like Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Haunted Mansion, The Hall of Presidents (up to 2001) and many more. He retired in 1983, and by the date of his last sculpture, you can see that he took his retirement very, very seriously, consulting on more attractions. He was also a great mentor and teacher, patiently passing along his skills to the next generation of Disney artists and Imagineers.
In 1993, he completed what is considered by some to be his greatest work, the “Partners” statue featured in Disney parks worldwide.
Without Blaine Gibson, we wouldn’t have so much of what makes Disneyland, Disneyland. The faces he created are as familiar to most of us as the faces of our friends and family. His friends and family will remember a warm, kind, talented person with a great big generous heart, and we’ll remember a giant talent who gave us some of the Disney magic in some great animated films and theme parks. I would most definitely call Blaine Gibson someone who won at life, and all of us who were in some way affected by his work, and those others blessed to know him personally, are better off because he lived his life.
Please join us in offering our praise and gratitude to Blaine for his myriad accomplishments and our sincerest sympathies to his friends and family.
Our thanks to Jeffrey Epstein, Jason Zucker and Jim Hill for their help with this remembrance.