Glen Keane, an Oscar-winning animator who worked on Kobe Bryant‘s “Dear Basketball” and Disney’s “The Little Mermaid,” was rescue by helicopter Wednesday after struggling on a mountain hike in Arizona.
On Wednesday, just after 8 a.m., Phoenix firefighters received reports of a hiker experiencing a medical emergency atop Mummy Mountain in Paradise Valley, Ariz. Fire Capt. Todd Keller later confirmed to AZFamily that the hiker was 72-year-old Keane, who was reportedly struggling with dizziness before requiring assistance making it down the mountain. Keane was flown to the base of the mountain, where he was checked out by paramedics. He did not require further medical assistance.
Keane, who grew up in Arizona and whose credits include “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” “Tarzan” and “Tangled,” opened up about the incident to local outlets, telling 12News, “We’re just on this very narrow, little ledge. But, my mountain goat grandkids maneuvered just fine. Then I got up there and was like, ‘Uh, what the heck did I do? I shouldn’t have done this.’ But, I knew that I really needed help.”
He expressed a similar sentiment to AZFamily, adding, “I was being lifted up [in the helicopter], and I was looking at all the areas that I used to climb around as a kid. And I thought, Lord, thank you. This was just a real blessing to have that crew … And they were really risking their own lives on the edge of that narrow little ledge. I mean, it was very much just like a razor’s edge up there.”
The Phoenix Fire Department later shared footage of Keane’s rescue on Facebook, writing, “Despite the extreme temperatures and unique terrain, the patient was safely extracted from a dangerous position on the mountain.”
Keane, was born in Philadelphia to cartoonist Bil Keane, who was the creator of “The Family Circus.” After graduating from Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix in 1972, Keane made his way to California, where he attended the California Institute of the Arts and was mentored by Jules Engel.
Though, Keane left CalArts in 1974 for a career at Disney, where he worked on “The Rescuers,” “Pete’s Dragon,” “The Fox and the Hound” and several films from the Disney Renaissance period.
He was named a Disney Legend back in 2013, a year after he had retired from the studio.
Keane didn’t stop animating, however. As he later won an Oscar alongside the late Bryant at the 90th Academy Awards for their work on an animated short film that was based on the NBA star’s retirement poem.
The post Oscar-Winning Animator Glen Keane Rescued From Mountain Hike by Helicopter: ‘I Really Needed Help’ appeared first on TheWrap.
