Roger Allers, the Disney film-maker who co-directed the 1994 classic The Lion King, has died at the age of 76. His death was announced on social media by Dave Bossert, a colleague at the Walt Disney Company, who described Allers as “an extraordinarily gifted artist and film-maker, a true pillar of the Disney Animation renaissance”.
Allers co-directed The Lion King with Rob Minkoff. The film was the highest-grossing movie of 1994 and remains the highest-grossing hand-drawn animated film of all time. It also won the Golden Globe for best motion picture musical or comedy. Allers later co-wrote the Tony-winning Broadway adaptation of The Lion King with Irene Mecchi.
Born in New York in 1949 and raised in Arizona, Allers became a fan of animation after seeing Disney’s Peter Pan at age five. He began his Disney career on Tron (1982) as part of the storyboard team, and worked on Oliver & Company, The Little Mermaid, and The Rescuers Down Under before becoming head of story on Beauty and the Beast and contributing to Aladdin.
Disney CEO Bob Iger remembered Allers as “a creative visionary whose many contributions to Disney will live on for generations to come”. Allers also worked on Lilo & Stitch and co-directed Sony Pictures Animation’s first feature film, Open Season.
