Disney Animator Burny Mattinson, Company's Longest-Tenured Employee, Dead at 87

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Walt Disney Company animator Burny Mattinson, who had been with the company since 1953, has died. He was 87.

The company announced Mattinson's death on Tuesday, noting the long-tenured employee — he "was the longest-serving cast member" in the company's history — died Monday at Canyon Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Canoga Park, Calif., "following a short illness."

"Burny's artistry, generosity, and love of Disney Animation and the generations of storytellers that have come through our doors, for seven decades, has made us better—better artists, better technologists, and better collaborators," Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jennifer Lee said in a statement Tuesday.

"All of us who have had the honor to know him and learn from him will ensure his legacy carries on," she added.

As Disney's longest-tenured employee, the company had planned to give Mattinson its first-ever "70th anniversary service award" in June, per a Disney press release.

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Born on May 13, 1936, Mattinson once said that he aspired to work in animation ever since his mother took him to see Disney's 1940 animated classic Pinocchio, and he began teaching himself to draw Disney-style animated characters, according to a release.

Mattinson eventually got his first job on the Disney lot as a mailroom employee just after graduating high school and first started working on the company's animated films just six months later for 1955's Lady and the Tramp.

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By the time Disney was producing its 1959 film Sleeping Beauty, Mattinson had been promoted to an assistant animator. From there, he worked on films like One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963) and The Jungle Book (1967). He also worked on the story team for Aladdin (1992), Beauty and the Beast (1993), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Tarzan (1997), and Mulan (1998), per a release.

Mattinson was still fully employed as a story consultant and mentor at the time of his death, Disney said in a press release. He set the company's longest-tenured employee record in 2018 after passing 23,651 days of service, previously held by longtime Imagineer John Hench.

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"Deeply saddened that Disney Legend Burny Mattinson—our longest serving employee—has passed away," company CEO Bob Iger wrote on Twitter Monday as the company mourned Mattinson's death.

"Burny started as a messenger on the lot in 1953 & went on to become a true icon of @DisneyAnimation," Iger added. "We are forever grateful for his contributions & seven decades of service."