James Algar
{{short description|Film director}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| image =
| name = James Algar
| birth_date = {{birth date|1912|6|11}}
| birth_place = Modesto, California, United States
| death_date = {{death date and age|1998|2|26|1912|6|11}}
| death_place = Carmel, California, United States
| occupation = Film director, screenwriter, film producer
| yearsactive = 1934–1977
}}
James Algar (June 11, 1912 – February 26, 1998){{cite web |last1=Staff |title=James Algar dies at 85 |url=https://variety.com/1998/film/news/james-algar-dies-at-85-1117468988/ |website=Variety |access-date=November 2, 2019 |date=March 22, 1998}} was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/79323/James-Algar/biography |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406175215/http://www.nytimes.com/movies/person/79323/James-Algar/biography |url-status=dead |archive-date=April 6, 2015 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |date=2015 |title=James Algar |access-date=March 29, 2015 }} He worked at Walt Disney Productions for 43 years and received the Disney Legends award in 1998.[http://legends.disney.go.com/legends/detail?key=James+Algar Disney Legends – James Algar] He was born in Modesto, California and died in Carmel, California.
Controversy
In 1958, Algar directed an Oscar-winning documentary White Wilderness, which contains a scene that supposedly depicts a mass lemming migration, and ends with the lemmings leaping into the Arctic Ocean. In 1982, the CBC Television news magazine program The Fifth Estate broadcast a documentary about animal cruelty in Hollywood called Cruel Camera, focusing on White Wilderness, as well as the television program Wild Kingdom. The host of the CBC program, Bob McKeown, discovered that the lemming scene was actually filmed at the Bow River near Canmore, Alberta, and further that the same small group of lemmings was transported to the location, jostled on turntables, and repeatedly shoved off a cliff to imply mass suicide.Cruel Camera (1982). Event starts at 20:54.
McKeown interviewed a lemming expert, who claimed that the particular species of lemming shown in the film is not known to migrate, much less commit mass suicide.{{Cite web|title=Did Disney Fake Lemming Deaths for the Nature Documentary 'White Wilderness'?|url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/white-wilderness/|access-date=January 28, 2021|website=Snopes.com|date=February 27, 1996 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web|date=June 15, 2013|title=Cruelty to Animals in the Entertainment Business: Cruel Camera - Watch Original Video: the fifth estate: CBC News|url=http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/cruelcamera/video2.html|access-date=January 28, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615205717/http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/cruelcamera/video2.html|archive-date=June 15, 2013}}
Selected filmography
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- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 - animator)
- Fantasia (1940 – director)
- Bambi (1942 - director)
- Victory Through Air Power (1943 – director)
- Seal Island (1948 – director)
- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949 – director) (The Wind in the Willows segment)
- In Beaver Valley (1950 – director)
- Nature's Half Acre (1951 – director)
- The Olympic Elk (1952 – director and writer)
- Bear Country (1953 – director and writer)
- Prowlers of the Everglades (1953 – director and writer)
- The Living Desert (1953 – director and writer)
- The Vanishing Prairie (1954 – director and writer)
- The African Lion (1955 - director and writer)
- Secrets of Life (1956 – director and writer)
- White Wilderness (1958 – director and writer)
- Grand Canyon (1958 – director)
- Jungle Cat (1960 – director and writer)
- Ten Who Dared (1960 – producer)
- The Legend of Lobo (1962 – director, producer and writer)
- The Incredible Journey (1963 – writer)
- The Gnome-Mobile (1967 – producer)
- The Best of Walt Disney's True-Life Adventures (1975 – director, producer and writer)
- Fantasia 2000 (1999 – director)
{{Div col end}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|0019282|James Algar}}
{{Disney Legends Awards 1990s}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Algar, James}}
Category:American male screenwriters
Category:Film producers from California
Category:People from Modesto, California
Category:Film directors from California
Category:Screenwriters from California
Category:Walt Disney Animation Studios people
Category:Directors of Golden Bear winners
Category:20th-century American male writers