GLENDALE — Animator and ???? ????? ??????artist Willie Ito, a Disney icon, will speak on Saturday, Sept. 21, at 4 p.m. at the Martial Arts History Museum, 201 N. Brand Blvd., Suite B100, Glendale.

Willie Ito

Born in San Francisco and incarcerated at Topaz, Utah as a child, Ito attemded the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. In 1954, he began working for Walt Disney Studios as an assistant to animator Iwao Takamoto on the film “Lady and the Tramp.” He later joined Warner Bros., where he worked with animators Chuck Jones and Fritz Freleng on such shorts as “What’s Opera, Doc?” and “One Froggy Evening.”

In the 1960s, Ito moved to Hanna-Barbera, where he contributed to such shows as “The Jetsons,” “The Flintstones,” “The Secret Squirrel Show,” “Wacky Races,” “Josie and the Pussycats,” “The Perils of Penelope Pitstop” and “Hong Kong Phooey.”

He returned to Disney in 1977 and designed Disney merchandise. Before retiring from animation, he served as director of character art-international for Disney Television Animation, which involved going overseas to various animation studios and overseeing the work.

Ito is also the illustrator of several children’s books, including “Hello Maggie” by Shigeru Yabu, which is about a boy who befriends a magpie while incarcerated at Heart Mountain in Wyoming. He is a recipient of the Winsor McCay Award from the International Animated Film Society.

The event is free. Park in the four-story tower at 222 N. Orange St. For more information, call (818) 245-6051 or visit https://martialartsmuseum.com.