Special effects designer Eustace (Arden) Lycett died 16 November 2006, though his death was only recently made public. Born in Stoke-on-Trent, England, on 21 December 1914, he joined Walt Disney Studios in 1937. He shared Oscars for special visual effects for Mary Poppins in 1964 and Bedknobs and Broomsticks in 1971.
Lycett was a protégé of Ub Iwerks. They and several other technicians worked together in the late 1930s to design a complex version of what was called the multiplane camera, a device that revolutionized animation by bringing depth to what had been a rather flat image. Their invention led to the production of 1937’s Snow White.
Lycett earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1937. Three days after graduation, he started work at Disney. In 1958, he was named head of Disney’s special photographic effects department.
He worked on many of Disney’s best-known films, and on such genre films as The Last Flight of Noah’s Ark (1980), The Cat from Outer Space (1978), Return from Witch Mountain (1978), Pete’s Dragon (1977), Freaky Friday (1976), Now You See Him, Now You Don’t (1972), Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968), Moon Pilot (1962), as well as many others.
In 1937, Lycett married Mary Ethel Goddard, who died in 2004. He is survived by four sons, a sister, eight grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.