After more than four decades of creating spectacular illuslons, this consummate artist/technician outdoes himself on Disney's latest film
Mild-mannered, soft-spoken Eustace Lycett heads Walt Disney Studio's Special Photographic Effects Department. His work in BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS, a musical fantasy co-starring Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson which skillfully combines animation and live-action, earned him his second Academy Award. He had previously won an Oscar for Special Visual Effects for MARY POPPINS in 1965.
Born December 21. 1914, in Staffordshire, England, Lycett traveled widely as a child with his father, an English mining engineer. His family moved permanently to the United States in 1933, just in time for him to enroll as a freshman at the California Institute of Technology. Upon graduation in 1937 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, he joined the Disney organization in the engineering departmerit,
Lycett's first proiect was to assist with the design and construction of the first multi-plane camera. which was immediately put into service on a Silly Symphony short. THE OLD MILL, and also on the first feature-length animated cartoon, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. Both were honored with Academy Awards, as was the creation of the multi-plane camera itself.
Transferring to the Multi-plane Scene Planning Department, he worked with artists and layout men to design the scenes for such classics as BAMBI, PINOCCHIO and FANTASIA. He continued in scene planning during the war years, working on training films which Disney produced for the armed forces.
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