Grim Natwick was born 10 years before animation. This week about 400 of his friends and co-workers will gather in Los Angeles to celebrate his 190th birthday. Throughout his career, Natwick worked in film and television, animated for most of the important American studios, designed Betty Boop for Max and David Fleischer and animated a great deal of the Snow White character in' Walt Disney's initial full-length cartoon production.
In the 1950s at the New York-based commercial arm of UPA, Grim strode into my small alcove, sat his tall, lanky body onto the one extra chair, crossed his legs, drew on the cigarette he held clenched in a holder and peered F.D.R.-like at the sketches tacked to the wall. Clasping a knee with one hand and waving the holder with the other he commenting dryly, "‘I guess I"m just a natural born animator.""
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