John Hench, the Disney artist designated as "Mickey Mouse's offical portrait artist" and the designer behind the look and feel of the parks, is dead at 95.
When Walt Disney started planning for Disneyland, one of the first artists he enlisted was Hench, who designed such attractions as Disneyland's Space Mountain.
After Walt Disney's death in 1966, Hench oversaw the creation of Walt Disney World in Florida in 1971 and the addition of Epcot in 1982. He also helped supervise the design of Disney's first overseas park, Tokyo Disneyland, which opened in 1983 in Japan, among other projects.
His color sense was legendary.
Against Hench's arguments, the head of a corporation once insisted on white for the walls of an Epcot attraction. A frustrated Hench finally replied, "Well, I have 34 shades of white. Which one do you want?"
(Thanks, Caines!)
