Roger Allers, co-director of The Lion King and Disney animator, dies at 76

Roger Allers, the Disney film-maker who co-directed The Lion King, has died aged 76, his Walt Disney Company colleague Dave Bossert announced on social media on Sunday morning. Bossert remembered him as "an extraordinarily gifted artist and film-maker, a true pillar of the Disney Animation renaissance" and said Allers was "one of the kindest people you could hope to know and work alongside." Disney CEO Bob Iger described Allers as "a creative visionary whose many contributions to Disney will live on for generations to come." "His work helped define an era of animation that continues to inspire audiences around the world, and we are deeply grateful for everything he gave to Disney.

Our hearts are with his family, friends, and collaborators," Iger wrote in a statement. Born in New York in 1949 and raised in Arizona, Allers became a fan of animation at age five after seeing Peter Pan. He began at Disney on Tron (1982) as part of the storyboard team, worked as a storyboard artist on Oliver & Company (1988), The Little Mermaid (1989) and The Rescuers Down Under (1990), served as head of story on Beauty and the Beast (1991) and worked on Aladdin (1992).

In 1994 Allers and Rob Minkoff co-directed The Lion King, which became the highest-grossing film of 1994, was temporarily the second-highest-grossing film of all time behind Jurassic Park, and remains the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film and the bestselling film on home video with more than 55m copies sold.

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Culture, Roger Allers, Walt Disney Company, Rob Minkoff, Bob Iger, Lion King Broadway