Thirty-seven years! That’s the length of time that Glen Keane worked at Disney Feature Animation and it’s the figure that stood out to me in yesterday’s surprise announcement that he was leaving Disney. How does that length of employment compare to the Nine Old Men and other famous Disney artists? The list below shows a cross-section of well known Disney artists, past and present, and how long each of them worked (or more appropriately, survived) at the studio.

LENGTH OF EMPLOYMENT FOR FAMOUS DISNEY ARTISTS

John Hench 64 years
Burny Mattinson 59 years
Eric Larson 52 years
Les Clark 49 years
Woolie Reitherman 48 years
Ken Anderson 44 years
Frank Thomas 43.5 years
Ollie Johnston 43 years
Marc Davis 43 years
Milt Kahl 42 years
Ward Kimball 40.5 years
John Lounsbery 40 years
Ron Clements 38 years
Ham Luske 37 years
GLEN KEANE 37 years
Mark Henn 31.5 years
Andreas Deja 30.5 years
Ruben Aquino 30 years
Joe Grant 28 years
Bill Peet 27 years
Fred Moore 20.5 years
Eric Goldberg 15 years
Art Babbitt 9 years
James Baxter 9 years
Bill Tytla 9 years

(Note: Many artists, like Keane himself, left the studio and returned. I’ve tried to take those departures into account while compiling the list, but if you find inaccuracies, please let me know.)

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Amid Amidi

Amid Amidi is Cartoon Brew's Publisher and Editor-at-large.

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