Tyrus Wong Facts: Google Doodle Celebrates Disney's Bambi Creator On 108th Birthday

Google doodle on Thursday celebrated the 108th birthday of Tyrus Wong, a Chinese-born American artist who was best known for creating some of Disney’s most iconic works, including "Bambi." Wong drew inspiration from Song dynasty classical Chinese paintings.

Wong, who was born Wong Gen Yeo, in a village in southern China's Guangdong Province on Oct. 25, 1910, traveled to America, and lived in Sacramento, before eventually settling in Los Angeles. He was around 8-year-old when he arrived in the United States with his father. His father would serve as his first art teacher, instructing Wong nightly in the art of calligraphy.

Wong's started working at Disney after Walt Disney visited a Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles' Chinatown to dine and view a mural Wong had helped paint there.

"Unfortunately, when Bambi hit theaters in 1942, Wong was only credited as one of many 'background artists,' leading his major contributions to go unrecognized for years," Google said describing his work. His contributions to Hollywood were finally recognized in 2001, when he was named a "Disney Legend."

Shortly after finishing his work on "Bambi," Wong was fired in 1941 by Disney in the wake of a bitter employees' strike earlier that year. He went on to work as a production illustrator at Warner Bros. Studios for 26 years. During this work, he drew and painted storyboards that shaped the look of "The Wild Bunch", "Sands of Iwo Jima", and "Rebel Without A Cause."

"Tyrus Wong’s work has inspired me since I first learned about him as a first-year animation student at CalArts. I specifically love how he infused Western illustration with Eastern painting sensibilities; it motivates me to think about ways to channel my own Chinese heritage in the stories and artwork I make," the creator of Thursday's Doodle, Sophie Diao, said. "Today’s Doodle was heavily inspired by Tyrus’ paintings of forests, which are atmospheric, blurry, and magical. They feel like distant memories that have been committed to paper. I tried to imbue the Doodle with this dreamy feeling too."

"The more research I did on his life, the more impressed I was by the playful and curious way he lived. I feel like I really got to know him from all the videos and interviews in which he lit up when talking about his creative process. Now that the project is over, I’ll miss being immersed in his world, but I hope to carry forward the inspiration I found," Diao added.

In 2013, Disney released a retrospective "Water to Paper, Paint to Sky," at the family museum in San Francisco, and two years later Wong was presented the San Diego Asian Film Festival (SDAFF) award for lifetime achievement.

Wong died in 2016 at the age of 106.