Bill Tytla

Bill Tytla

Interment Location Visited  
Oakdale, CT January 2, 2024  

Photographed January 2, 2024.

A tiny, nondescript, roadside cemetery in the village of Oakdale, Connecticut, is the final resting place of “Animation’s Michelangelo.” Though not counted among the “Nine Old Men” whose decades of work helped define the visuals of Walt Disney Studios pictures, Vladimir “Bill” Tytla was one of the most talented animators of the company’s Golden Age.

Photographed January 2, 2024.
Photographed January 2, 2024.
Photographed January 2, 2024.

Fast Facts

Born: October 5, 1904 in New York, New York

Spouse: Adrienne le Clerc Tytla (m. 1938-1968)

Disney Legends: Class of 1998

Died: December 30, 1968 in Flanders, East Lyme, Connecticut

Age: 64

Interment: St. John Ukrainian Orthodox Cemetery, Oakdale, Montville, Connecticut

"There is no particular mystery in animation... it's really very simple, and like anything that is simple, it is about the hardest thing in the world to do."
- Bill Tytla
June 28, 1937 at Walt Disney Studios in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California

Sources Consulted and Further Reading

D23: The Official Disney Fan Club. “Bill Tytla.” Accessed January 5, 2024. https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/bill-tytla/.

Dizographies. “Bill Tytla – Grumpy Management.” YouTube video, 10:41. April 12, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKLQUNkuP4g.

Hollywood Graveyard. “Famous Graves of Disney Legends.” YouTube video, 1:14:16. December 25, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZulk5epicQ.

Paik, Karen. To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007.

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