Don Ernst, a film, sound and music editor and producer who worked on many hits across both live-action TV and film and animation over more than 50 years, died Sunday at age 89. News of his passing was shared with Animation Magazine by animation historian and former Disney colleague Tom Sito, who worked with the late producer off and on at the studio from Aladdin (1992) through Fantasia 2000 (1999).
“Don had a prolific career editing classic TV series like Gunsmoke, Gilligan’s Island and Hill Street Blues,” Sito wrote. “He was a mainstay for Ralph Bakshi, cutting Heavy Traffic, Coonskin, Lord of the Rings and more. At Walt Disney feature, he worked on Back to Neverland and Fantasia Continued, later Fantasia 2000.
“He could be gruff, but he was always fair. I can still hear his deep gravely voice in the hallway calling out, ‘Lois! Lois!’ for Lois Freeman-Fox, Fantasia‘s lead editor.
“A devoted father and grandfather. Peace and comfort to Stacy, Darci and all the Ernst family. RIP.”
Born January 25, 1934, Donald William Ernst cut his teeth in live-action TV in the mid-1950s, and went on to win two Primetime Emmy Awards (and several more nominations through the ’70s and ’80s) for his sound editing work, taking home the prize for the special Raid on Entebbe and series Hill Street Blues.
His earliest work in animation was with the auteur New York director Ralph Bakshi, working on his adults-only dark comedies Heavy Traffic , Coonskin and Hey Good Lookin’ as well as the fantasy epic Wizards and adaptation of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. He also edited for Steven Hahn’s 1985 space opera, Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, notable for being the first animated feature produced in 3-D, and Jerry Rees’s 1987 fan favorite The Brave Little Toaster.
At the close of the ’80s, Ernst edited shorts based on Disney hits Peter Pan (Back to Neverland) and Tummy Trouble (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), shifting roles to produce the early ’90s shorts Roller Coaster Rabbit, Mickey’s Audition and, later, the Goofy outing How to Haunt a House (1999). He also served as story supervisor on the Oscar-nominated Disney-Dalí short Destino.
Ernst was co-producer on Disney’s animated Aladdin and a producer on the musical anthology Fantasia 2000, as well as the Walt Disney Pictures English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning feature Spirited Away (2002). He also executive produced the popular live-action comedy-adventure Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey (1993).
