Les Clark and John Lounsbery will always be known as the most self-effacing of the Nine Old Men.
Leslie James Clark was born on November 17, 1907, in Ogden, Utah. His family moved to California in 1920. In 1925, he met Walt Disney for the first time while serving ice cream in a confectionary in front of the Disney Studio on Vermont Avenue.
Les Clark graduated from Venice High School, asked Walt for a job, and joined Disney on February 23, 1927. During the first six months at the Studio, he operated the animation camera, and served as an inker and painter during the next six months.
When the animation crew that had handled Oswald the Lucky Rabbit left the Studio in 1928 to follow Charles Mintz, Ub got Les Clark to assist him by doing some inbetweens on Steamboat Willie. […]
