Winston Hibler

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Winston Hibler (born October 8, 1910 in Harrisburg , Pennsylvania , † August 8, 1976 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American screenwriter , film producer and director as well as actor and voiceover . His work for Walt Disney productions is best known . He is familiar to English-speaking film and television audiences as the spokesperson for the Disney documentaries.

Life

Origin, education and first years of employment

Winston Hibler wanted to become an actor even as a teenager and therefore went to New York to complete a corresponding training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts there , which he completed in 1930. In the same year he married the actress and ice skater Dorothy "Dottie" Johnson (1912-2010). The couple had three children, including Christopher Hibler (1942-2010), who later worked in the film business after training at the Disney studios.

After playing briefly on Broadway and at the theater of the season in the early 1930s , Winston Hibler tried to gain a foothold in Hollywood . As an actor, however, he couldn't get beyond extras and tiny supporting roles in the film business and kept himself afloat as a freelance writer for magazines and radio stations .

Careers at Disney Studios

In 1942, he started in the Walt Disney Studios as a cameraman , but soon worked his way up to technical director ( technical director ) military training films that the studio during the Second World War produced on behalf of the US government. His first pure entertainment film was then Music, Dance and Rhythm (1948), for which he wrote the screenplay for the segment Hänschen Apfelkern ( Johnny Appleseed ). Walt Disney recognized his talent as a writer, and as a result Winston Hibler was then involved in the development of the scripts for all long Disney cartoons, except for Lady and the Tramp (1955), up to and including Sleeping Beauty and the Prince (1959 ). He also worked as a dialogue director for these films and contributed some lyrics , such as the songs Following the Leader, written together with Ted Sears , for Peter Pan's cheerful adventures (1953) and I Wonder for Sleeping Beauty and the Prince (1959). In his role as a songwriter , Hibler was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) from 1954 .

The voice of the Disney documentaries

Winston Hibler is best known to the general public in English-speaking countries, however, as a commentator on the Disney documentary series of journeys of discovery in the realms of nature ( True-Life Adventures ) and land and people ( People and Places ). His calm and pleasant voice, marked by the accent of the Midwest , was a trademark of all these films , starting with The Seal Island (1948). Walt Disney was well aware of this, and so Hibler was primarily involved with these documentary productions for over a decade. Already from Earth, the Great Unknown (1951) he wrote regularly on the scripts, working closely with his fellow writer Ted Sears as well as co-producer Ben Sharpsteen and director James Algar . In this constellation, Hibler also played a major role in the success of long film documentaries such as The Desert Lives (1953), Miracles of the Prairie (1954) or Secrets of the Steppe (1955).

In contrast, his work for the country and its people took a back seat. He played a key role in creating a film in the travel film series, Company Arktis (1955), as director, screenwriter and speaker. The documentary about icebreakers in the Arctic Ocean not only brought Walt Disney the Oscar for “Best Short Documentary” in 1956 , but also brought Hibler the “Small Golden Plaque” at the Berlin International Film Festival . He later directed Seven Cities of Antarctica (1958).

Hibler also worked intensively with Ralph Wright and N. Paul Kenworthy, Jr. on Perri's Adventure (1957), Disney's first and only true-life fantasy . In this live version of the original by Felix Salten , recordings of real animals were used based on the style of the documentary films. Hibler was not only involved in the script and the lyrics, but also co-producer and narrator.

In addition, Hibler worked as a writer, director and speaker on various episodes of the Disney television show Disneyland , in which he was seen several times in front of the camera. A particular success was the television special company Tiefsee (1954), staged together with Hamilton S. Luske , which not only dealt with the history of the exploration of the deep sea , but also acted as the making-of for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). The studio won an Emmy for this in 1955 .

As a producer

When Walt Disney phased out its documentary film series in the early 1960s, Hibler - starting with Nikki, Hero of the North (1961) - concentrated as production manager primarily on those feature film productions of the studio in which animals or nature were the supporting elements. He worked particularly closely with director Norman Tokar and screenwriter Louis Pelletier , for example on These Calloways (1965) and Forty Daredevils (1966). Occasionally he also directed the sensitive animal adventure films The Lonely Puma (1967), Lefty the Lynx (1971) and Chandar the Black Leopard (1972).

After Walt Disney's death in 1966, Winston Hibler was next to James Algar , Bill Anderson , Ron Miller , Bill Walsh , Harry Tytle and Roy E. Disney on the staff of the seven producers who took over the production management under the chairmanship of Disney Vice President Card Walker . You became the main man in charge of all of the studio's film production for the next decade. Overall, Hibler, who was simply called Hib or Hibbie within the studio , was involved in around 150 film and television productions at the Disney studios.

His last feature film was the lavish but not particularly successful science fiction film adaptation Island at the End of the World (1974).

While preparing for The Black Hole (1979), Winston Hibler died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 65 on August 8, 1976.

In recognition of his services, the Walt Disney Company posthumously named him a Disney legend in 1992 .

Filmography (selection)

  • 1948: Music, dance and rhythm (Melody Time) - script participation
  • 1948: The Robben Island (Seal Iceland) - Speaker
  • 1949: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad) - screenplay participation
  • 1950: In Beaver Valley - speaker
  • 1950: Cinderella , also: Cinderella (Cinderella) - script participation
  • 1951: Earth, the great unknown (Nature's Half Acre) - script participation and narrator
  • 1951: Alice in Wonderland (Alice in Wonderland) - script participation
  • 1952: The Olympic Elk - script participation and narrator
  • 1952: waterfowl (Waterbirds) - screenplay participation and speakers
  • 1953: In the land of the bears (Bear Country) - Speaker
  • 1953: The Alaskan Eskimo narrator
  • 1953: Peter Pan's cheerful adventure (Peter Pan) - script and songwriting involvement
  • 1953: The Living Desert (The Living Desert) - screenplay participation and speakers
  • 1954: Siam - Land and People (Siam) - script participation and speaker
  • 1954: Operation Undersea - TV coregie
  • 1954: The Vanishing Prairie (The Vanishing Prairie) - screenplay participation and speakers
  • 1955: Schweiz (Switzerland) - Speaker
  • 1955: Company Arctic (Men Against the Arctic) - director, screenplay and spokesman
  • 1955: Secrets of the Steppe (The African Lion) - script participation and narrator
  • 1956: Sardinia (Sardinia) - Speaker
  • 1956: Secrets of Life (Secrets of Life) - Speaker
  • 1956: Disneyland, U.S. - speaker
  • 1957: Perri's Adventure (Perri) - scriptwriting and songwriting involvement, co-producer and narrator
  • 1957: The Blue Men of Morocco - speaker
  • 1958: Seven Cities of Antarctica - director and speaker
  • 1958: Ama Girls - speaker
  • 1958: White Wilderness (White Wilderness) - Speaker
  • 1958: The Pigeon That Worked a Miracle - TV movie in the Disneyland series - producer
  • 1959: Sleeping Beauty and the Prince (Sleeping Beauty) - script and songwriting involvement
  • 1959: Jungle Cat - narrator
  • 1959: mysteries of the deep (Mysteries of the Deep) - Speaker
  • 1960: islands in the sea (Islands of the Sea) - Speaker
  • 1961: Flash, the Teenage Otter - TV movie in the Disneyland series - Narrator
  • 1961: Nikki, Wild Dog of the North - script participant and producer
  • 1961: Chico, the Misunderstood Coyote - TV movie in the Disneyland series - Narrator
  • 1962: My friend Red (Big Red) - co-producer
  • 1962: Sammy, the Way-Out Seal - Disneyland series TV movie - co-producer
  • 1963: Little Dog Lost - Disneyland series TV film - co-producer and narrator
  • 1965: Ida, the Offbeat Eagle - Disneyland series TV film - co-producer and narrator
  • 1965: These Calloways (Those Calloways) - co-producer
  • 1965: A Country Coyote Goes Hollywood - TV film in the Disneyland series - Screenplay participation and narrator
  • 1966: Beloved House Tyrant (The Ugly Dachshund) - co-producer
  • 1966: Forty Daredevils (Follow Me, Boys!) - co-producer
  • 1967: The Lonely Puma (Charlie, the Lonesome Cougar) - director, co-producer and story
  • 1968: The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit - producer
  • 1970: Aristocats (The Aristocats) - co-producer
  • 1970: King of the Grizzlies - producer and narrator
  • 1971: Lefty, the Dingaling Lynx - TV movie - director
  • 1972: Chandar, the Black Leopard of Ceylon - director
  • 1972: Escape to the Wild (Napoleon and Samantha) - producer
  • 1973: A Camel in the Wild West (One Little Indian) - producer
  • 1974: The Bears and I - producer
  • 1974: Südsee-Cowboy (The Castaway Cowboy) - co-producer
  • 1974: The Island at the Top of the World (The Iceland at the Top of the World) - Producer

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Short biography in the IMDb ; Retrieved March 26, 2012
  2. ↑ Hibler played, for example, in Der Untergang von Pompeii ( The Last Days of Pompeii , 1935).
  3. ↑ a b c Winston Hibler at Disney Legends ; Retrieved March 26, 2012
  4. ↑ a b c Dave Smith: Disney A to Z. The Official Encyclopedia. 3. Edition. Hyperion, New York 1996, ISBN 0-7868-6223-8 , p. 234.
  5. ↑ later overwritten also just simple adventures of nature
  6. ↑ see Leonard Maltin : The Disney Films. 3. Edition. Hyperion, New York 1995, ISBN 0-7868-8137-2 , p. 114.
  7. ↑ Information from the IMDb; Retrieved March 4, 2012
  8. ↑ Dave Smith, Steven Clar: Disney - The First 100 Years. (Original title: Disney - The First 100 Years ). Egmont Ehapa Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-7704-0417-3 , p. 104.
  9. ↑ IMDb entry on Hibler ; Retrieved March 23, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Hibler, Winston
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American screenwriter, film producer and director, actor and voiceover actor
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Harrisburg , Pennsylvania
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 1976
Place of death Los Angeles , California