Dan Goozee, a former Walt Disney Imagineering theme park consultant, passed away on April 7, 2024, at age 80.
Born in 1943 in Astoria, Oregon, he later graduated from the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena in 1965.
Within a year, he was working in the art department of Fox and was a production illustrator on “Doctor Dolittle” (1967), “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (1970), “The Poseidon Adventure” (1972) and “The Towering Inferno” (1974), as well as a set illustrator on “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” (1973).
After working on “Logan’s Run” (1976) and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977), Goozee joined Walt Disney Imagineering as a developmental/consulting artist.
Goozee crafted conceptual artwork for for the Splash Mountain and Big Thunder rides at Disneyland Paris and Tokyo DisneySea, as well as for the Imagination Pavilion and Seas Pavilion at EPCOT, and for the Tree of Life attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
He also crafted a ninteen-foot mural for Robert Mondavi’s Golden Vineyard Room, which opened in Grizzly Peak at Disney’s California Adventure when the park did.
Besides his work for Disney, Goozee created original art for three James Bond films, “Moonraker”, “Octopussy”, and “A View to a Kill”. He also handled effects work for “Battlestar Galactica” (1978) and “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” (1979).
His survivors include his wife, Michi; son Rob; daughter-in-law Sarah; and twin grandsons Christopher and Jonathan.