animator Russ Dyson --- died prematurely?

[Matt the Y]

While doing a search at the California Death Records section at RootsWeb.com, out of curiosity, I decided to do a search for Russ Dyson who was an animator for the McKimson unit briefly in the 1956 period. Nobody ever seems to mention Dyson so I was curious as to whatever happened to him. Surprisingly, I found one result; Russell Dyson who died in the Los Angeles area on September 29, 1956!!!!!

Seeing as how this was the only result that showed up and seeing as how it seems to co-incide with how Dyson's name mysteriously disappears from McKimson's cartoons around this same time (his last ever animation credit was for McKimson's "Boston Quackie", released in June 1957), is it possible this was McKimson's animator Russ Dyson who met an untimely end in 1956? He was only 50 years old!!!!!

If Dyson did in fact die in 1956, only about a year after he came to work for the studio, it's a shame because if he lived longer, he could have actually made more of a name for himself at the studio instead of fading into obscurity.

Perhaps Sogturtle could shed some light on this subject and help answer my question. He always seems to be the most knowledgeable at this board about such topics of discussion. ;)

[Sogturtle]

Matt the Y~

Thanks for the compliment:) , and yeah I know that ex-Disneyite Russ Dyson died prematurely in '56... I've never tried looking up his obituary proper (and I know he's not listed under that name in Social Security but only in the Californy;) death records). The tale that I heard was that Russ, ummmm how do I say this nicely?:confused: Well, supposedly he killed himself in 1956:eek: . Now the source for this tidbit was an old and somewhat bitter Warner employee (who was markedly off in some of his other recollections that I've been able to verify or falsify:rolleyes: ) so it may NOT be true... The L.A. Times (or maybe another paper) would probably have his obit, but they RARELY will include something like suicide in the write-up.

[Matt the Y]

Matt the Y~

Thanks for the compliment:) , and yeah I know that ex-Disneyite Russ Dyson died prematurely in '56... I've never tried looking up his obituary proper (and I know he's not listed under that name in Social Security but only in the Californy;) death records). The tale that I heard was that Russ, ummmm how do I say this nicely?:confused: Well, supposedly he killed himself in 1956:eek: . Now the source for this tidbit was an old and somewhat bitter Warner employee (who was markedly off in some of his other recollections that I've been able to verify or falsify:rolleyes: ) so it may NOT be true... The L.A. Times (or maybe another paper) would probably have his obit, but they RARELY will include something like suicide in the write-up.

Suicide seems logical enough... 50 is a pretty young age to die so natural causes don't seem likely. A damn shame...

One question... Does this mean that Russ Dyson did some uncredited animation on "Bedevilled Rabbit", "Cheese It - The Cat!", and "Fox-Terror"? Those shorts were all released before "Boston Quackie" (which does credit Dyson) and would likely have been in production when Dyson was still living or was "Boston Quackie" released out of order with those three other shorts?

[Tom Stathes]

Judging by what many people ate in the last century (and some still do!), a massive heart attack in someone's 50s, among other things, would have been a common cause of death. I'm curious if the suicide theory will be proven.

[Sogturtle]

Judging by what many people ate in the last century (and some still do!), a massive heart attack in someone's 50s, among other things, would have been a common cause of death. I'm curious if the suicide theory will be proven.

Tom~

Small clarification... It's NOT a theory but instead the memory of an embittered old animator who tried saying that he thought it was Dyson but who wasn't sure at all. For all I know Dyson could've been in a fatal car-wreck or died of a heart attack or infectious disease. Warner's had one guy who was horribly injured/almost killed in a gruesome wreck and another non-animating employee who (as MY memory serves me) was shot very badly in a holdup.

And truth be told, probably the single greatest killer of the 20th century was smoking, through its effects of lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease (aka heart attacks). Food was/is only a VERY minor threat to anybody in comparison.