It is with sadness that we recently learned that Disney Legend Francis Xavier Atencio, aka. X. Atencio passed away last Sunday, September 10th.
As told on the D23 website, he was born in Walsenburg, Colorado, on September 4, 1919, then moved to Los Angeles in 1937 to attend Chouinard Art Institute. Instructors gently prodded the shy young artist to submit his portfolio to The Walt Disney Studios. He startled neighbors the next year when, running from the company’s Hyperion Studio to his aunt’s house, he bolted past their homes shouting “I got a job at Disney!”
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X Atencio retired in 1984, after 47 years with The Walt Disney Company and was inducted as a “Disney Legend” in 1996.
[Jérémie Noyer] was fortunate to make his acquaintance in 2004 and did several interviews with him. [Jérémie remembers] him as an inspiration and the kindest person. Here are [their] interviews as published in 2008 in Walt’s People – Volume 7, as both an homage and a testimony of his incredible career.
