Norman Palmer obit

Norman ‘Stormy’ Palmer, Disney Legend and Film Editor, Dead at 94

He was not on the list.

Norman “Stormy” Palmer, the veteran film editor who cut many of Disney’s “True-Life Adventure” pics including the Academy Award-winning “The Living Desert,” died of natural causes March 23 in his Northridge, Calif., home. He was 94.

Palmer worked at the Mouse House for nearly five decades and became firmly entrenched with the “True-Life Adventure” films. Titles he edited include “The African Lion,” “Beaver Valley,” “White Wilderness” and “Nature’s Half Acre,” among others. Palmer edited films including The Living Desert, Water Birds, The Shaggy D.A., and The Legend of Lobo.

He also worked on classic Disney titles “Ten Who Dared,” “The Incredible Journey” and “The Gnome-Mobile,” and had more than 20 credits on Disney TV anthology skeins.

A fourth-generation Californian, Palmer was born Oct. 7, 1918, in Santa Ana, Calif. He graduated from Hollywood High in 1937 and netted a staff projectionist position at Disney one year later. Palmer eventually worked his way to the Editorial department, where he lent a hand on “Pinocchio” and “Fantasia.”

During WWII, he collaborated with helmer John Ford in the field photo branch of the Navy. He also edited projects for Capitol Hill’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In 1946 Palmer returned to the Mouse House, and in 1953 he received his first feature credit on “The Living Desert.” He also edited the 1959 Oscar winner “Grand Canyon.”

He is survived by two daughters, Christine Thomson and Lindsey Palmer, and two grandchildren. Palmer was predeceased by his wife Barbara, who he met at Disney and married in 1947, and a third daughter, Laurie.

Donations may be made in the name of Stormy Palmer to Southern California Hospice Foundation (Simi Valley Branch).