John Lasseter is one of the best known animators in the world! His movies have been the best of their kind!
Lately he was been part of a controversy! So it’s the perfect time to find out some facts and trivia about his life and career!
- His full name is John Alan Lasseter
- He was born on January 12, 1957
- John Lasseter is an American animator, filmmaker
- And former chief creative officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar and the defunct Disneytoon Studios
- He was also the Principal Creative Advisor for Walt Disney Imagineering
- John Lasseter began his career as an animator with The Walt Disney Company
- After being fired from Disney for promoting computer animation
- He joined Lucasfilm
- There he worked on the then-groundbreaking use of CGI animation
- The Graphics Group of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm was sold to Steve Jobs
- It became Pixar in 1986
- John Lasseter oversaw all of Pixar’s films and associated projects as executive producer
- In addition, he directed Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Cars (2006), and Cars 2 (2011)
- From 2006 to 2018,John Lasseter also oversaw all of Walt Disney Animation Studios’ films
- And associated projects as executive producer
- The films he has made have grossed more than $19 billion (USD)
- Making him one of the most successful filmmakers of all time
- Of the seven animated films that have grossed more than $1 billion
- Five of them are films executive produced by John Lasseter
- The films include Toy Story 3 (2010)
- The first animated film to pass $1 billion
- Frozen (2013)
- The current highest- grossing animated film of all time
- As well as Zootopia (2016), Finding Dory (2016), and Incredibles 2 (2018)
- He has won two Academy Awards
- One for Best Animated Short Film (for Tin Toy)
- As well as a Special Achievement Award (for Toy Story)
- In November 2017, John Lasseter took a six-month sabbatical from Pixar and Disney Animation
- After acknowledging “missteps” in his behavior with employees
- According to various news outlets, John Lasseter had a history of alleged sexual misconduct towards employees
- In June 2018, Disney announced that he would be leaving the company at the end of the year
- When his contract expired
- But would take on a consulting role until then
- On January 9, 2019, John Lasseter was hired to head Skydance Animation
- John Lasseter was born in Hollywood, California
- His mother is Jewell Mae
- She was an art teacher at Bell Gardens High School
- And his father was Paul Eual Lasseter
- He was a parts manager at a Chevrolet dealership
- John Lasseter is a fraternal twin
- His sister is Johanna Lasseter- Curtis
- She became a baker based in the Lake Tahoe area
- She is six minutes older than him
- John Lasseter grew up in Whittier, California
- His mother’s profession contributed to his growing preoccupation with animation
- He often drew cartoons during church services at the Church of Christ his family attended
- As a child, John Lasseter would race home from school to watch Chuck Jones cartoons on television
- While in high school, he read The Art of Animation by Bob Thomas
- The book covered the history of Disney animation and explored the making of Disney’s 1959 film Sleeping Beauty
- This made John Lasseter realize he wanted to do animation himself
- When he saw Disney’s 1963 film The Sword in the Stone, he finally made the decision that he should become an animator
- John Lasseter heard of a new character animation program at the California Institute of the Arts
- He then decided to follow his dream of becoming an animator
- His mother further encouraged him to take up a career in animation
- In 1975 he enrolled as the second student in the CalArts Character Animation program created by Disney animators Jack Hannah and T. Hee
- John Lasseter was taught by three members of Disney’s Nine Old Men team of veteran animators
- And his classmates included future animators and directors like Brad Bird, John Musker, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, and Chris Buck
- During his time there, he produced two animated shorts
- They were Lady and the Lamp (1979) and Nitemare (1980)
- Each won the student Academy Award for Animation
- While at CalArts, Lasseter first started working for the Walt Disney Company at Disneyland in Anaheim
- This was happenning during summer breaks
- He got a job as a Jungle Cruise skipper
- There he learned the basics of comedy and comic timing to entertain captive audiences on the ride
- John Lasseter lives in Glen Ellen, California
- He has a wife Nancy
- She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University
- Whom he met at a computer graphics conference in San Francisco in 1985
- Nancy majored in computer graphics applications
- For a short period of time worked as a household engineer and as a computer graphics engineer at Apple Computer
- They married in 1988
- They have five sons
- They were born between 1979/1980 and 1997
- The Lasseters own Lasseter Family Winery in Glen Ellen, California
- The property includes a narrow gauge railroad named the Justi Creek Railway
- It is approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) long
- Including a train station and water tower Lasseter purchased from former Disney animator Ward Kimball
- Their residence has a swimming pool with a lazy river that runs through a cave
- John Lasseter owns a collection of more than 1,000 Hawaiian shirts
- He wears one every day
- John Lasseter also inherited his late father’s passion for cars
- Besides having directed two films about them
- He watches auto races at Sonoma Raceway near his home
- He also collects classic cars
- One of his favorites is his black 1952 Jaguar XK120
- On May 2, 2009, John Lasseter received an honorary doctorate from Pepperdine University
- There he delivered the commencement address
- His influences include Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Frank Capra, Hayao Miyazaki, and Preston Sturges
- John Lasseter’s favorite film is Walt Disney’s Dumbo
- He recently became a headline due to Emma Thompson’s open letter addressed to him and not wanting to work with him
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