Biography

Herbert "Herb" Dickens Ryman was an artist who worked in watercolor, oils, and pen & ink sketches. He was a personal friend of Walt Disney and was called upon to help the Walt Disney Studios on many special projects over a five decade span. Ryman went to work for Disney in 1938 when such full-length animated films as Pinocchio, Dumbo, Fantasia and others were in the planning stages. On September 23, 1953, upon the personal request of Walt Disney, Mr. Ryman completed several drawings which Roy O. Disney (Walt's Brother) took to New York to show the bankers in order to secure the loan for the original $17 million used to build Disneyland. He also help design many major pictures for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and 20th Century Fox during Hollywood's "golden age." He was a major contributor to the screen styling of David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, Anna Karenina and "Mutiny on the Bounty. He graduated cum laude in 1932 from the Chicago Art Institute.
- IMDb mini biography by: Alan Davis

Herbert was raised at an early age in Mount Pulaski, IL., where his father was in medical practice. He moved with his mother and two sisters to nearby Decatur shortly after the death of his father, Dr. Herbert Ryman, Sr., who was killed while administering to the wounded on the battlefields in France during WWI. His father was highly decorated and was buried with honors in Arlington National Cemetery. He eventually enrolled in Millikan Univ., Decatur, but switched to the Chicago Art Institute upon the advice of his Millikan art instructor who told his mother that he could not teach him further.
- IMDb mini biography by: phil bertoni