Clyde Geronimi was an animation director and assistant director for Walt Disney Animation Studios. Born in Chiavenna, Italy on June 12, 1901, he was immigrated into the United States as a young child.
His first job in the animation industry was with working at J.R. Bray Studios, with future producer Walter Lantz. When Bray shuttered operations, Lantz founded his own studio and brought Geronimi with him. Geronimi left the studio for Walt Disney Productions in 1931, where he was an animator initially but later was promoted to director. His first directing job was on the 1939 color remake of The Ugly Duckling, which was co-directed with Jack Cutting, and was final short in the Silly Symphony series. The original version of The Ugly Duckling was produced in black and white and was released in 1931.
He made his feature length directorial debut with Victory Through Air Power in 1943, which was co-directed by James Algar and Jack Kinney. He has since continued working with the studio on short films and feature length films. He was assigned to direct One Hundred and One Dalmatians, but left the studio in 1959 during production, with Wolfgang Reitherman and Hamilton Luske completing the film after his departure. It is final film Geronimi directed. He worked with UPA on directing episodes of Mister Magoo and The Dick Tracy Show. He continued working as an animation director for the studio until 1967 when he moved to Grantray-Lawrence Animation to direct episodes of the original Spider-Man television series, serving as his final directing work. After Grantray-Lawrence ceased operations due to bankruptcy, Geronimi retired. He died on April 24, 1989 at age 87, which makes him the last of the three directors of the original 101 Dalmatians film to pass away.