Jane Baer, one of the most renowned female animators on the North American continent, passed away in her sleep at her home at the age of 91.

Jane Maureen Shattuck was born October 30, 1934, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. She died February 16, 2026, in Van Nuys, California, USA.

n 1984, she and second husband Dale Baer launched Baer Animation, and she supervised the Toontown sequences and the character Benny the Cab for the landmark Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).

Under her supervision, Baer Animation expanded to become one of the few, fully self-contained and independent animation facilities in the U.S., with departments for every facet of animation production, including digital ink and paint, compositing, recording and effects. She oversaw a staff ranging from 50 to 100-plus artists and personnel, based on the production.

Baer also expanded with Baer Animation Camera Services, which shot major portions of Disney’s The Little Mermaid (1989) and The Prince and the Pauper (1990), plus Rover Dangerfield (1991), FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992), The Swan Princess (1994) and a variety of projects for Warner Bros. Animation and Hanna-Barbera.

Following her husband’s departure in the early 1990s — he would join Disney full-time in 1998 — she continued to run the company until her retirement in the early 2000s. (Dale Baer died of complications from ALS in 2021.)

Born on Oct. 30, 1934, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Jane Maureen Shattuck trained at the Art Center in Pasadena and in 1955 became an assistant animator on Sleeping Beauty (1959), working alongside the legendary “Nine Old Men” at Disney. While there, she met animator Iwao Takamoto, and they married in 1957 before divorcing two years later.

Jane Baer was a founding member of Women in Animation and served as part of its advisory board. Baer was also a member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group that bestows Oscars, and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the group that bestows Emmy’s. Her work was an inspiration to thousands of young artists, male and female.

She also worked on films including The Fox and the Hound (1981), Mickey’s Christmas Carol (1983) and The Black Cauldron (1985), then handled freelance storyboarding work for The Smurfs and other series at Hanna-Barbera.

Baer’s résumé also includes animation work for Fletch Lives (1989), Last Action Hero (1993) and The Beautician and the Beast (1997) and service as a writer and executive producer on Annabelle’s Wish (1997).

She was featured in Mindy Johnson’s acclaimed 2017 book Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation and in the documentary Pencils vs. Pixels (2023).

Jane Maureen Shattuck Takamoto Baer was married and divorced twice. Her first husband was the great Iwao Takamoto. They were married from 1957 to 1959, and had one child together, a son Michael Takamoto. She married fellow animator Dale Baer in 1976. They had two children together prior to their divorce.

Survivors include her son, Michael, and his partner, Beth; her brother, Gerald; her sister-in-law, Marlene; her nieces, Lauri-Jane and Erin; her great-niece, Lily-Jane; and her great-nephew. Justin.

Donations in her memory can be made to the Best Friends Pet Adoption Center in West Los Angeles.