Oscar-winning Disney animator Glen Keane had to be airlifted off an Arizona mountain Wednesday morning after a frightening hiking emergency left him too dizzy and weak to make it back down.
Keane, 72, was hiking Mummy Mountain near Paradise Valley with family shortly after 6 a.m. when he became stranded on a narrow ridge. The veteran animator called for help after realizing he could no longer safely continue.
Firefighters responded to the mountain and found Keane alert, but unable to walk back down on his own. Crews used ropes to secure him before a Phoenix Fire Department helicopter hoisted him from the steep terrain.
Keane was flown down the mountain and evaluated by paramedics. Fortunately, he did not need additional medical treatment.
The close call left the legendary animator shaken but grateful.
“I was being lifted up [in the helicopter], and I was looking at all the areas that I used to climb around as a kid. And I thought, Lord, thank you,” Keane told Arizona’s Family.
He described the ridge as dangerously narrow, saying, “It was very much just like a razor’s edge up there.”
Keane is best known for his decades of work with Disney, helping bring some of the studio’s most beloved characters to life. His credits include Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Little Mermaid.
In 2018, he won an Academy Award alongside Kobe Bryant for the animated short Dear Basketball.
After the ordeal, Keane urged hikers to take Arizona’s brutal summer conditions seriously, warning that even familiar trails can become dangerous fast.
“Things change,” he said.
