FRANK THOMAS was one of the leading animators from the glory days of Disney, who enjoyed a 43-year association with the corporation. He drew such unforgettable scenes as Thumper teaching Bambi how to ice-skate, Peter Pan’s duel with Captain Hook, and the two romantic mutts nibbling their way towards each other along a strand of pasta in Lady and the Tramp (1955).

Born in Santa Monica, California, Frank Thomas developed an interest in drawing at an early age, drawing cartoons for his school newspaper, and he studied art at Stanford Univeristy before attending the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He joined the Disney Studio in 1934, where he became part of the animation team that was responsible for the very first full-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).

He subsequently worked on Pinocchio (1940) and Bambi (1942), and spent the remainder of the war making training films for the military. Back with Disney in 1946 he worked on all the studio’s raging successes: from Cinderella (1950) and Sleeping Beauty (1959) to The Jungle Book (1967) and The Rescuers (1977).

He acquired a reputation for his expressive handling of emotionally charged scenes. When Grumpy, the misogynist among the seven dwarfs, buried his face in his hands at Snow White’s deathbed, audiences wept — the first time an animated character had elicited such a response.

He was one of what Walt Disney — borrowing President Roosevelt’s nickname for the Supreme Court — called “the Nine Old Men”. Another was Thomas’s lifelong friend and fellow-animator Ollie Johnston, whom he had met at Stanford. After they retired from Disney in 1978, they jointly wrote four (illustrated) books about their art, including Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life (1981). Their ideas — about character-based animation and how animators should copy actors in the way they approach a scene — had a profound influence on the present generation of American animators.

Thomas and Johnston’s long collaboration was celebrated in a documentary, Frank and Ollie (1995).

Brad Bird, one of the animators whom Thomas helped to train before his retirement, told the Los Angeles Times: “The sheer vastness of his contribution to the art form is staggering. In term of animation, the bar remains where the Nine Old Men set it.”

Frank Thomas is survived by his wife of 58 years, Jeanette, and their three sons and daughter.

Frank Thomas, Disney Studios animator, was born in Santa Monica, California, on September 5, 1912. He died on September 8, 2004, aged 92.