Don Iwerks, a Disney Legend and the son of Mickey Mouse co-creator Ub Iwerks, died on July 9, just days before his 97th birthday. He was surrounded by family and friends, according to an obituary shared by his family and reported by Deadline.
Iwerks won two Academy Awards during his career. In 1988, he received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award, given each year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to an individual whose technological contributions have brought credit to the motion picture industry. Previous recipients include Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull and effects artist Douglas Trumbull. In 1998, Iwerks received a Scientific and Technical Achievement Oscar for a breakthrough called the Iwerks 8/70 Linear Loop projection system.
That system helped large-format theaters by eliminating the huge, circular rotors of rolling loops, leading to better image quality that could fit into smaller theaters and onto curved screens. The technology was adopted widely, from large-format theaters to simulation attractions.
Iwerks was designated a Disney Legend in 2009, honored as having made a significant impact on the Disney legacy, according to The Wrap. He was also the father of documentarian Leslie Iwerks.
Born in Dallas, Texas, Iwerks grew up in Southern California and began his career at Disney in 1950. He was drafted into the Army in 1951 and served for a year and a half in Germany as a Signal Corps photographer during the Korean War. He returned to Disney in 1952, working first in the Disney Process Lab until an allergic reaction to photographic chemicals forced him to transfer to the Studio Machine Shop.
His connection to photography and the photochemical process never left him. As Disney's official obituary noted, Iwerks was known as a pioneer in the development of numerous camera, projection, and other systems for Disney parks and films. He spent 34 years developing cameras, optical printers, special effects systems, and technologies that shaped Disney productions across generations.
Though he never received a formal engineering education, he was described by the Walt Disney Family Museum as a self-taught engineer with a uniquely intuitive understanding of complex mechanical systems. He was involved in the earliest days of audio-animatronics, worked on Walt Disney's miniature Barbershop Quartet, and served as the model for Abraham Lincoln's hands for the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction, which debuted at the 1964-65 World's Fair and later moved to Disneyland, where it is still performed today.
Iwerks and his father share a window on Main Street at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. It reads, in part, "Repairs | Modifications, No Two Exactly Alike."
