Trivia

Was part of the inner circle of Disney animators, known as the "nine old men". The other members were Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Milt Kahl, Marc Davis, Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman, John Lounsbery and Les Clark.

One of the locomotives at the Disneyland Railroad (engine No. 5) was named the "Ward Kimball" in his honor by the time it was put into service on June 25th, 2005. The plan to name the locomotive in his honor was announced at a rededication ceremony for the Disneyland Railroad engine No. 2 (the "E. P. Ripley") on March 27th, 1999.

Grandfather of film composer Christopher Lord.

Father of John Kimball, Kelly Kimball and Chloe.

Appeared as a contestant on Groucho Marx's quiz show '"You Bet Your Life" (1950)' on March 18, 1954.

Ward and his wife Betty were the first private owners and operators of full-sized steam railroad equipment in a U.S. residential backyard.

Nearly quit Disney after two elaborate sequences he worked on (one of them fully animated) were cut from the final film of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). He did, however, relent after he was given the coveted task of animating Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (1940).

Kimball was known for his offbeat, irreverent sense of humor. He was a key promoter (if not the originator) of the urban legend that Walt Disney was placed in cryogenic storage after his death. "People still constantly ask me if it's true that Walt's body is frozen and if he believed he could come back someday," Kimball told a journalist in 1973. "Well, it's such a dull world. So when I'm asked that...Just to stir things up I tell everybody he's frozen. Actually, he was cremated." And in a 1996 interview Kimball neither confirmed nor denied starting the rumor, but readily admitted, "I like to keep it floating out there.".

In his first authorized biography, "The Story of Walt Disney" (1957), Walt Disney was quoted as saying, "Ward Kimball is one man who works for me that I'm willing to call a genius." Disney rarely praised his employees, and Kimball believed he made this remark only because Disney knew the animator would be mercilessly teased by his studio peers over it.

"It's Tough to Be a Bird" (1969), produced and directed by Ward Kimball, was the last Disney animated short to win an Academy Award for over 40 years. As its producer Kimball became the only one of Disney's "Nine Old Men" animators to be personally awarded an Oscar.

Employed at Walt Disney Productions from April 2, 1934 to August 31, 1973.

Kimball once said the only other animation studio he would've worked for was Warner Bros.