We lost one of Hollywood’s true visual effects wizards yesterday.
By that I mean: Peter Ellenshaw could do what only a handful of artists could do. Which is take a piece of glass & a few tubes of paint. And then he’d create these impossible places & things. A long-forgotten Viking colony that was hidden high up in the Arctic. A leprechaun’s throne room that was piled high with gold. A secret seabase that had been built inside the caldera of a long-dormant volcano. This elegant long spacecraft that was parked at the edge of an immense black hole.
All of these places exist in Disney films because Peter Ellenshaw was an absolute master of matte painting. He could take these rough bits of film that Walt or Bill Walsh or Robert Stevenson would hand him and then — with just a few flicks of a brush — extend a half-built set. Or make a miniature seem downright enormous. That way, Mary Poppins would then have a proper looking English park to take Jane & Michael Banks to. Or Eglantine Price would then have a properly moody English moor on which to battle Nazis.
So much of the magic that we took for granted in those Walt Disney Productions of the 1950s, 1960s & 1970s was a direct result of Ellenshaw’s talent & artistry. His ability to take those blank bits of screen and make them seem real. Which is why we believed that Jim Douglas & Tennessee Steinmetz actually did live in an old San Francisco firehouse with Herbie the Love Bug. Or that Jim Hawkins & Long John Silver really did drop anchor at Treasure Island.
But you know what else was great about Ellenshaw? In spite of his obvious talent & given all that he’d accomplished in life, Peter was still this incredibly humble, very accessible guy. I was lucky enough to get the chance to chat with this man at a few VES events. And even though I was just this lowly dweeb who wrote for the Web, Ellenshaw was still incredibly generous with his time. Telling me all these great tales about what it was actually like to work for the Mouse while Walt was still alive.
And you know what struck me about Peter? That even then — literally decades after Disney had personally invited Ellenshaw to come work at his studios, because Walt had recognized what a huge talent Peter was — Ellenshaw was still grateful that Disney had taken a chance on this poor artist from the U.K.
Which perhaps explains why — when Walt was at his absolute lowest, as he lay dying in St. Joseph’s hospital in December of 1966 — Peter wanted to do something to try & comfort his boss. As he recounted in his excellent memoir, “Ellenshaw Under Glass” :
“I tried to see (Walt) in the hospital, but his secretary told me he would see no one. I decided to do a little painting of a desert smoke tree, knowing how much he loved the desert, hoping I would be able to give it to him.
I called his secretary, Tommie Wilck, who told me, no, (Walt) didn’t want anyone to see him in the condition he was in, but she would take it to him. Later, she told me it was hung on the wall so he could look at it, and he would proudly tell the nurses how one of his boys painted it for him.”
To me, that one act of kindness, using his paintbrush to try & bring a little comfort to Walt Disney while he lay on his deathbed … That just spoke volumes about Peter’s true character. What a genuinely kind & caring guy he was. Which is why — out of all of the great images that Ellenshaw created over his lifetime — I chose that particular painting to illustrate today’s tribute.
Anyway … If the world seems a little less magical today … There’s a reason. We lost a great artist as well as a good & gentle man yesterday.
JHM – as well as the entire Disneyana community – mourns the loss of Peter Ellenshaw. We also extend our sympathies to his family in their time of sorrow.
Special thanks to Peter Emslie for providing the caricature that appears with today’s piece