Walt Disney Archives

This Day in Disney

Disney Legend Peter Ellenshaw is Born

Disney Legend Peter Ellenshaw, whose large-scale paintings known as mattes made the impossible possible — taking audiences to the watery worlds with Captain Nemo and enabling Mary Poppins to soar above the rooftops of London — was born in London on this day in 1913. One of the most gifted painters and visual effects experts ever to work in the film industry, Ellenshaw left his very sizable visual signature on such classic Disney live-action films as Mary Poppins, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Old Yeller and The Black Hole. Peter began his association with Walt Disney in 1947, when he was tapped to work on the Studio’s first live-action film, Treasure Island. He went on to create a wide variety of visual effects for the Studio’s films and television shows and even painted the iconic map of Disneyland. Though he retired from the Studio in 1979, he continued to work as a painter and became known as one of the finest seascape artists of the 20th century. “When you think that Mary Poppinswas made without anyone setting foot outside a soundstage… you get some idea of what he was able to pull off,” remembered film critic Leonard Maltin at the time of Ellenshaw’s passing. Peter Ellenshaw was named a Disney Legend in 1993.