Animator Jane Baer, whose over six decade career included work on “Sleeping Beauty” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” died Monday at her home in Van Nuys, Calif. She was 91.
The industry pioneer, who later founded Baer Animation with her second husband Dale Baer, notably got her start on the 1959 Walt Disney classic, “Sleeping Beauty,” where she worked as an uncredited clean-up artist on the film, per her IMDB. She also worked alongside the “Nine Old Men,” a famed a group of animators at Walt Disney Productions.
Baer later worked as an animator at Ed Graham Animation before moving over to Pantomime Studios, where she joined their layout department and worked on “Skyhawks” and “Speed Racer.” She then had a stint at Filmation Studios, where she lended her skills to “Aquaman” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth.”
However, Baer found herself back at Disney in 1975, where she worked for one of the company’s most influential animators, Milt Kahl, on “The Fox & The Hound,” “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” and “The Black Cauldron.” She also worked as an assistant animator on “The Rescuers.”
Yet, by 1984, Baer and her husband decided to launch their own animation company, the aforementioned Baer Animation, where they contributed to significant parts of Robert Zemeckis’ “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” Baer, who expanded with Baer Animation Camera Services, ran Baer Animation until she retired in the early 2000s.
She was born Jane Maureen Shattuck on Oct. 30, 1934, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Baer later trained at the Art Center in Pasadena before landing her “Sleeping Beauty” gig in 1955. She married first husband, fellow animator Iwao Takamoto, but they divorced two years later.
Additional notable credits include “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Smurfs” series, “The Black Cauldron,” “Pete’s Dragon” and “Aladdin and the Magic Lamp.”
She is survived by her son, Michael, and his partner, Beth, as well as her brother and his family in Winnipeg.
