Academy Award-winning special effects pioneer Don Iwerks dies at 96

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Set us as preferred Don Iwerks, an Academy Award-winning special effects pioneer whose innovations transformed film and Disney theme parks, died peacefully Thursday at the age of 96, the Walt Disney Co.announced.For Disney and his own studio, Iwerks Entertainment, Iwerks helped develop technologies and techniques like Circle-Vision, the 360-degree camera behind “America the Beautiful” and other early Disney attractions, and the 3-D effects used in attractions like Captain EO and the Star Tours ride.“There was a ‘can-do’ attitude I learned from Walt and my father,” Iwerks said, according to a statement shared by the Disney Co.

“Walt gave everyone a feeling that they were creating things that others had never thought of before, of being a part of history.”Born July 24, 1929, Iwerks received his first camera at age 14 as a gift from his father, animator Ub Iwerks.The elder Iwerks met fellow artist Walt Disney when both men were teenagers working at a Kansas City, Mo., art studio.They would go on to work together at the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, where Iwerks designed and animated “Plane Crazy,” the first Mickey Mouse cartoon.After a stint at his own animation studio, Ub returned to Disney as a special effects engineer, pioneering techniques like the 360-degree motion-picture camera.“He was absolutely my inspiration because he was technically minded.

He made my childhood and formative years one of the greatest times of my life,” Don Iwerks told The Times in 1998.The Iwerks family moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1936, where Don graduated from Van Nuys High School in 1947.He served as a photographer in Germany during the Korean War and joined his father at Disney following his 1952 discharge from the U.S.Army.

An allergic reaction to chemicals used to develop film led to his transfer to the compan...