Information
Full name: Joseph Clarence Grant
Birth: May 15, 1908 in New York City, New York
Death: May 6, 2005 in Burbank, California
Marriages:
June Hershey (1930 – April 12, 1934)
Jennie Miller (1934 – 1991)
Worked at the Disney studio between:
September 9, 1933 – April 13, 1949
1989 – May 6, 2005
Job on Snow White:
Character designer
Story artist (uncredited)
Worked on all sequences
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Models and caricatures
Joe Grant started in Hollywood as a child actor extra in a few movies. By his twenties, after attending Chouinard Art Institute, he drew caricatures for the Los Angeles Record. This talent got him a job at Walt Disney’s studio for the short Mickey’s Gala Premiere.
He then joined the story department and it is in that capacity that he started work on storyboarding the Queen’s scenes for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He revealed in an interview by Myke Lyons that the old version of the Queen was modeled after a neighbor. The young version went through many changes but it seems that Joe went for Joan Crawford’s look since it was likely her usual body double, Sylvia Lamarr, who was hired to model for the character.
He claimed that the closest thing that inspired him was John Barrymore in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He also helped design the raven and the vultures, as well as the slave in the magic mirror, although he credits William Cottrell for coming up with the idea of the bottom lighting.
He remembers making a model of the witch in papier mâché which was dressed by his wife Jennie.
Joe went on to create the studio’s character model department and stayed until 1949. He then tried his luck at the greeting card business and other activities. He returned to the studio to work on The Rescuers Down Under and stayed until the very last day of his life.
