Harvey Franklin Toombs was an American animator, who worked at Disney from the 1940s until his death in 1968.
Toombs was born on in Kansas City, the son of Frederick Boggs Toombs and Helena Hamilton and was the youngest of three boys (Ernest and Floyd). Passionate about drawing since childhood, he studied art before landing a job at Max and Dave Fleischer's studios working on the feature film Gulliver's Travels, the studio's effort to copy the same success as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. After a few months, Toombs accepted an offer to work at Disney during the pre-production of several film productions, such as Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi. He learned how to animate character designs of several senior colleagues with whom he worked closely with, such as Milt Kahl, Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, and Ollie Johnston as well unique sequences from the films.
At Disney, Toombs met Leota Wharton, a young in-betweener, whom he married in 1947. The couple then gave birth to two daughters: Kim and Launie. An avid outdoorsman, Toombs rode horses and hiked with daughters and performed brass instruments and guitar on occasion with his Disney colleagues from the Firehouse Five Plus Two.
During the 1960s, his payroll, like others, was cut due to downsizing in the studio's animation department due to the financial loss caused by Sleeping Beauty. To continue making end's meat, he began seeking working at other studios, such as UPA and Hanna-Barbara. Toombs died on March 19, 1968 and is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA.
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