Walt Disney Films


© Walt Disney Productions


© Walt Disney Productions


© Walt Disney Productions


© Walt Disney Productions

© Walt Disney Productions

© Walt Disney Productions

© Walt Disney Productions


© Walt Disney Productions

© Walt Disney Productions

© Walt Disney Productions

© Walt Disney Productions

© Walt Disney Productions


© Walt Disney Productions


© Walt Disney Productions

© Walt Disney Productions and
© 20th Century Fox Productions

© Walt Disney Productions

Hank's best-known movie role was as "Gudger Larkin," the bumbling captain of the high school track team, in Disney's comedy classic, "Blackbeard's Ghost," starring Peter Ustinov, Dean Jones, Elsa Lanchester, and Suzanne Pleshette. When filming this scene as he was flying on "the Mary Poppins wires" high above the Disney soundstage, the wires broke. Hank fell right on top of poor Sir Peter, bleeding all over his expensive pirate costume!

Walt Disney himself cast Hank in "Blackbeard's Ghost." But it was to be Walt's last film: sadly, he died during the first days of shooting in 1966.

Another "Hank & Dean:" Hank with Dean Jones in "Blackbeard's Ghost."

In his long career, Hank got a chance to work with some of the best character actors in the business such as Jim Backus, Herschel Bernardi, Edgar Buchanan, Terry-Thomas, Spring Byington, Lee J. Cobb, Hermoine Gingold, and Arthur O'Connell. Here Hank and Dean Jones are with Richard Deacon in "Blackbeard's Ghost."

Here's Hank in a series of photos from his favorite movie, "Blackbeard's Ghost." Walt Disney, who personally produced the film, would get angry if anyone called him "Mr. Disney:" it was always, "Uncle Walt." Hank showed up faithfully for work each morning at the corner of Goofy Lane and Dopey Drive to film these memorable scenes.

Hank made eight films for Disney Studios, among them "Herbie Rides Again" and "The Shaggy D.A." Here he is with John Davidson in "The One & Only Original Family Band."

Working at Disney in the 60s and 70s was like being at summer camp. Here are Hank and John Davidson just shooting the breeze in between takes of "Family Band."

Hank singing and dancing up a storm with Wally Cox in "Family Band." Hank, Wally, and Richard Deacon rehearsed four weeks prior to shooting to be able to handle the dance numbers in this, one of Hollywood's last old fashioned big musicals.

Disney films always had great casts: here is Hank with Buddy Ebsen, Lesley Ann Warren, John Davidson, and the legendary Walter Brennan. If you look closely, you can spot a young chorus girl in the background in her first movie role: she was billed then as "Goldie Jeanne Hawn."

Disney's "Cat From Outer Space" gave Hank a chance to play against his usual nerdy type as a power-mad young army officer.

Hank with Ken Berry and the fabled title-role character in "Cat From Outer Space."

Hank gives McLean Stevenson a hard time in "Cat From Outer Space."

Hank giving police-officer static to a tar-and-feathered Tim Conway in "Shaggy D.A."

Hank as a befuddled cop who has just crashed into a truckload of bananas in a long-forgotten Disney epic.

Hank with a young Kurt Russell in Disney's "The Barefoot Executive," taking his first flying lesson over Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 with Jeff Donnell in 20th Century Fox's oscar-winning "Tora-Tora-Tora", as "Sir Lancelot," the wimpy auto-racer in Disney's "Herbie Rides Again," and with future soap-star Deidre Hall as "Adam and Eve."

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Here is Hank in some scenes from "Herbie Rides Again" (he played TWO parts in this one: "Sir Lancelot, the drag racer" and "The Surfer Dude" who rides the waves with Herbie), "The Cat From Outer Space," and "The Shaggy D.A." Hank was honored to be asked to write the Foreword and contribute many happy memories to Charles Tranberg's well-reviewed new book, Walt Disney and Recollections of the Disney Studios 1955-1980." Besides Hank's reminiscences, the book contains warm anecdotes from Dick Van Dyke, Maureen O'Hara, Julie Andrews, Fess Parker, and many others who toiled at "The Mouse House."

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