Ub Iwerks

American animator and special effects technician, born in 1901. A co-founder of the Disney studio and Walt Disney's closest collaborator in the early years, he animated The Skeleton Dance (1929) almost single-handedly and is credited as the animator who designed Mickey Mouse. Known for his extraordinary speed and technical ingenuity, he left Disney to run his own studio briefly before returning to develop the special effects processes behind many later Disney features.