Leo D. Sullivan, trailblazing animation artist and educator, dies at 82

Leo D. Sullivan, the trailblazing animation artist who worked on the classic opening sequence for "Soul Train" as well as dozens of cartoons, has died. He was 82.

Sullivan died Saturday of heart failure at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center, his wife Ethelyn Sullivan confirmed Wednesday to the Los Angeles Times. Throughout his career, the Emmy-winning animator contributed to various TV series, including "The Incredible Hulk," "Flash Gordon," "BraveStarr," "Transformers" and "Scooby-Doo."

In the 1970s, he designed the iconic cartoon steam locomotive that welcomed viewers every week to "Soul Train." He also helped develop and animate the 1969 TV special, "Hey, Hey, Hey, It’s Fat Albert” for NBC, according to his official biography on AfroKids.com.

In addition to breaking barriers as an animator, Sullivan made his mark as a producer, director, layout artist, storyboard artist and writer while working for top animation studios such as Warner Bros., Filmation, New World, Richard Williams and Hanna-Barbera.

While managing animation studios based in the United States, China and the Philippines, he oversaw development for animated series and movies distributed in the United States, Thailand, Spain, France, Canada, Australia, Germany and Ireland.

Beyond Hollywood, Sullivan collaborated with the California Science Center, taught classical 2-D animation and digital animation at the Art Institute of California — Orange County and lectured at UCLA.

In 1979 and again in 1991, Sullivan received accolades from the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in Oakland. His work has also been exhibited at the San Francisco Cartoon Museum and the Los Angeles African American Museum.

Among Sullivan's closest collaborators was Floyd Norman, the first Black animator to work at Disney. Together, Sullivan and Norman founded Vignette Films, which produced animated shorts educating high-school students on Black historical figures, from George Washington Carver to Booker T. Washington.

The creative duo later joined forces to launch AfroKids, a multimedia organization providing online resources and streaming content for Black parents and their kids. Sullivan was featured prominently in the 2016 documentary, “Floyd Norman: An Animated Life.”

He is survived by his wife and two children, Tina Sullivan Coleman and Leo Sullivan Jr.

"Empowering people — especially Black people, Black families, Black children — in order to build their self-esteem and value system ... that's what I'm here about," Sullivan said in 2017.

"What about the next generation of people who take over when we're gone?"

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.