Roger Allers, The Lion King co-director died at age 76.
He passed away suddenly at his residence in Santa Monica following a short illness.
Allers also worked on The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Rescuers Down Under and others.
Roger Allers, The Lion King Co-Director, Passes Away At 76
Roger Allers, the co-director of the 1994 animated classic The Lion King, has died at age 76.
Summary
Roger Allers, the co-director of the 1994 animated film The Lion King, breathed his last at age 76. Allers also worked on other Disney animated films, including Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Oliver and Company and Rescuers Down Under.
Roger Allers death
The Oscar and Tony-nominated animated film director passed away suddenly at his residence in Santa Monica following a short illness, a Disney Animation spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.
Disney pays tribute to Roger Allers
Disney CEO Bob Iger, in a statement, paid a heartfelt tribute to the veteran director. He said Roger’s work “helped define an era of animation that continues to inspire audiences around the world,” and they are “deeply grateful for everything he gave to Disney.”
Veteran visual effects supervisor Dave Bossert also paid tribute to his friend on Facebook.
“I am deeply saddened by the news that our friend Roger Allers has passed on to his next journey,” he wrote. “We were just trading emails this past week while he was traveling in Egypt, which makes this loss feel all the more unreal. Roger was an extraordinarily gifted artist and filmmaker, a true pillar of the Disney Animation renaissance,” Bossert added.
Roger Allers early life and career
Born on June 29, 1949, in Rye, New York, Allers was passionate about animation from a young age. He received a fine arts degree from Arizona State University.
Allers worked on the 1980 animated feature Animalympics, Tron, and Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland.
Apart from directing The Lion King, Allers also adapted the screenplay for the Lion King Broadway musical with Irene Mecchi. He bagged a Tony nomination in 1998 for best book of a musical.
In 2006, he co-directed Open Season and also wrote and directed the animated adaptation of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (2015). The Little Matchgirl, Watership Down, The Bugs Bunny/Road-Runner Movie, Return to Never Land, Ted, Back to the Jurassic and Ted 2 are some of his notable works.
Allers earned an Oscar nomination for best animated short film for The Little Matchgirl.
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