Obituaries
Milton Quon, Disney 'Fantasia' And 'Dumbo' Animator, Dies At 105
The animator, who never stopped sketching, died June 18 of natural causes at his home in Torrance, California, according to reports.
![Milton Quon (right) was "drawing right up until his last days," his son said.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/getty/22942913/20190702/064625/styles/patch_image/public/gettyimages-455055581___02184611332.jpg)
TORRANCE, CA — Milton Quon, the Disney animator behind Fantasia and Dumbo, has died, according to reports. He was 105. The iconic Disney animator was a sketching centenarian, continuing to draw the world as he saw it until the very end.
Quon died June 18 of natural causes at his Torrance, California home, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Quon was "drawing right up until his last days," his son, artist Mike Quon told the news website. In 2005, he was interviewed by the L.A. Times about an upcoming art exhibit at the Chiense American Museum in downtown L.A., and joked about his love for recreating the food he ate.
"I was on a kick there for a while of painting every meal I had," Quon told the Times as he poured through pages of watercolors depicting entrees and salads. "It doesn't matter where I am. In a bank, I'll sketch the people waiting in line with me. On buses, I'd do sketches of the driver."
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Quon was born on August 22, 1913, in Los Angeles. He was the eldest of eight children, and his parents were immigrants who came to the United States from China.
Quon started working for Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1939, but he also dabbled in acting and appeared as an extra in films and television shows such as Speed (1994), Sweet Jane (1998) and Chill Factor (1989), among others, according to IMDb.
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As news spread of Quon's death, fans and friends alike took to Twitter.
"Milton Quon was wonderful, brilliant, and talented. Most important, he was a very kind man. He was much beloved," Author Lisa See wrote.
Quon was married to his wife, Peggy for more than 70 years. They had four children and four grandsons, according to the Ministry of Culture, a Los Angeles-based art collective. When asked about the secret to his longevity, Quon would say "A good wife and Chinese food," The Hollywood Reporter said.
Milton Quon was wonderful , brilliant, and talented. Most important, he was a very kind man. He was much beloved. https://t.co/muWkAQ2lry
— Lisa See (@Lisa_See) July 2, 2019
#RIP Milton Quon, 105; L.A. native worked on 'Fantasia' and 'Dumbo' as a Disney animator and appeared on the runaway bus in 'Speed.' The secret to his longevity? "A good wife and Chinese food," he said. https://t.co/FGxxwiWtlU
— Mike Barnes (@MikeBarnes4) July 2, 2019
RIP Milton Quon, who was born in L.A. in 1913 and died last week. His was a quintessential L.A. story: a son of immigrants who became an animator on the Disney films "Fantasia" and "Dumbo," worked Douglas Aircraft during WWII, rejoined Disney in the PR dept, and went on to BBDO pic.twitter.com/w2GDKadWC2
— Scott Sandell (@swsandell) June 24, 2019
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