Lee Blair

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexMale
Full nameLee Everett•Blair
Used nameLee•Blair
Born1 October 1911 in Los Angeles, California (USA)
Died19 April 1993 in Soquel, California (USA)
NOC United States
Medals OG
Gold 1
Silver 0
Bronze 0
Total 1

Biography

In 1932, Lee Everett Blair was only a 21-year-old student at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and had a long career ahead of him as a painter, cartoonist and illustrator. His grandfather, father and uncle were great architects also, who shaped the development of the city of Los Angeles in a significant way. His wife Mary (1911-78) was one of the most famous graphic designers with Walt Disney Productions. Lee Blair began his career with watercolor paintings. The close friendship of the couple to Walt Disney (1901-66) helped them become involved in film and comic productions mostly, and especially with television commercials and animations. His brother Preston (1908-95) was also an animator for Disney.

From 1938, Lee Blair worked for Walt Disney Productions as a color and animation specialist and was engaged, for example, in the films “Bambi” and “Pinocchio”. He received numerous awards for this work. He also taught landscape painting in Los Angeles for some time. During World War II, he produced instructional films for the Navy. After the war, he founded his own company, Film/TV Graphics, Inc. From 1968, he was active again primarily as a painter and taught, for instance, at the University of California Santa Cruz. In 1932 Lee Everett won a gold medal in the art competitions of the Olympic Games for his watercolor Rodeo Day, aka simply Rodeo. The work made the California Style of watercolor painting famous. After the Olympics it went to Blair’s old school, the Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles. Hanging in the library for a long time, it was probably lost when the school moved to Sun Valley. Its whereabouts are unknown to this day.

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1932 Summer Olympics Art Competitions USA Lee Blair
Painting, Drawings And Water Colors, Open (Olympic) 1 Gold
Painting, Drawings And Water Colors, Open (Olympic) AC