ANIMATOR OF DISNEY HITS SUCH AS ‘LITTLE MERMAID’

ANN SULLIVAN • 1929-2020

Ann Sullivan, who applied her refined brush and palette as an animator to latter-day Disney classics such as “The Little Mermaid,” “The Lion King” and “Lilo & Stitch,” died April 13 at the Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in Woodland Hills. She was 91.

Her daughter Shannon Jay said the cause was COVID-19.

Sullivan was the third of four people at the home who have died from the coronavirus, according to a fund representative.

Sullivan began bringing cartoons to life at Walt Disney’s animation studios in the 1950s, working on films such as “Peter Pan” (1953) before giving up her job to care for her children.

She returned to animation in 1973, first working for Hanna-barbera, and later rejoined Disney. She worked on Disney films such as “Oliver & Company” (1988), “Pocahontas” (1995) and “Hercules” (1997) as well as films released by other studios, such as “Cool World” (1992) and “The Pagemaster” (1994).

Sara Ann Mcneese was born April 10, 1929, in Fargo, N.D., to Thomas and Helen (Kossick) Mcneese. Her father was an accountant and her mother was a stenographer. Ann graduated from Catholic school and attended North Dakota State University before moving to California, where she studied at what is now the Artcenter College of Design in Pasadena.

She started working for Disney soon after graduation, at first in the studio’s vast paint lab.

Sullivan also taught art to children near the family’s home in La Mirada.