I can't stress enough on the importance of animation. Even after 10 years in the industry, I keep stumbling on new challenges, each having to learn from scratch, a new form of motion. Jeff Gabor is one of my idols in animation.
While being an animator means being a performer, I think it takes a certain type of animator to be able to master both. Jeff is one of the greats.
I think it is good to point out that you don't have to act as well as him, in order to be an animator. Many of us use references from movies, asking our colleagues for help, mostly mixing together a few goofy video references into 1 cohesive acting clip. Here's a gem from Jeff enjoy~~~