People

Maurice Noble

Filed under: people, , , ,

"Maurice Noble was one of the most well-respected animation designers and layout artists of the age of Golden American Animation, and a self-proclaimed "rebel" who worked for Walt Disney as..."

Bill Nolan

Filed under: people, ,

"Bill Nolar started in New York doing crazy cat on Felix the Cat. He worked for Lantz Studios during the mid 40s."

William C. (Bill) Nolan

Filed under: people, , , , , , , ,

"Nolan was a innovative film animator and director during the early days of sound animation, working mostly with Walter Lantz and J.R. Bra..."

Floyd Ernest Norman

Filed under: people, , , , ,

"Floyd Norman is an American animation legend responsible for directing a number of feature animated films for Walt Disney Studios, including Sleeping Beauty (1959), One Hundred and One Dalmations (1961), and The Jungle Book (1967). Having worked fo..."

Yuri Norstein

Filed under: people, , , ,

"Norstein was born in Andreyevka, Penza region in Russia on September 15, 1941. Norstein is credited as one of the most legendary Russian animators of all time. His most famous film, Hedgehog in the Fog, released in 1975 to critical acclaim, and w..."

Lester Novros

Filed under: people, , , ,

"Novros was an oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker, animator and artist, as well as being a professor and a film designer, who made many breakthroughs in the large-format screen industry used widespread today to depict theatrical films. "

Willis Harold O’Brien

Filed under: people, ,

"O'Brien was an innovative special effects animator, most well-known for the landmark production in 1925 of The Lost World, and animated the Gorilla sequences in the famed King Kong film from the 30's. He also developed the revolutionary animation..."

Ken O’Connor

Filed under: people, , , ,

"Ken O'Connor was born in Perth, Australia, and died in Burbank California. He was a legendary Disney layout artist, designer as well as art director. During his time at Disney, he helped the studio achieve a high level of visual dynamism in their cla..."

Joseph (Joe) Oriolo

Filed under: people, , , ,

"Oriolo was a cartoon animator who was born in Union City in 1913. He created the famed Casper the Friendly Ghost character, and directed more than one thousand cartoons, including the first syndicated television series of Felix the Cat. "

George Pal

Filed under: people, , , ,

"George Pal was an Oscar-winning, Hungarian-born animator, director and producer, and the creator of the Paramount Puppetoons stop-motion theatrical series, as well as many celebrated science-fiction films that combined Pal's expertise in special ef..."

Claire Parker

Filed under: people, ,

"Claire Parker was an American engineer and animator who is best known for her collaboration with Russian animator Alexandre Alexeieff on inventing pinscreen animation.Claire Parker was born inBoston,Massachusettsto a wealthy and privileged family. Sh..."

Heino Pars

Filed under: people, , , ,

"Heino Pars was born in Mustla, Viljandi County in Estonia on October 13, 1925. Pars along with his colleague Elbert Tuganov are cited as the fathers of puppet animation in Estonia. Pars' most famous film is Nael/Nail (1972), an experimental film ..."

Raymond “Ray” Patterson

Filed under: people, , , , , , ,

"Ray Patterson was an Emmy nominated animator, cartoon director, producer, most noted for his work in the 40's during the “golden age” of animation on the legendary Tom and Jerry cartoon series, as well as animating with 

Manuel Perez

Filed under: people, , , , ,

"Manuel Perez - typically credited as Manny Perez - was a Mexican-American animator who worked at Warner Bros. studios from 1938 on. He worked for Friz Freleng's unit for ten years, but they did not get along. Between 1955 and 1959 he did not work in ..."

Patrick Anthony (Pat) Powers

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

"Pat Powers was an influential American businessman who was involved with the film and animation developments inAmericaduring the first part of the twentieth century. His most important development being the work of Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, who he b..."

Kemp Powers

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , ,

"Kemp Powers (1973-present) is an African-American director, screenwriter and playwright working for both animation and theatrical play. Powers worked as a journalist for 17 years before entering the film industry. He began writing for real-life wor..."

Stephen and Timothy Quay (Brothers Quay)

Filed under: people, , , , , ,

"Stephen and Timothy Quay are identical twin brothers and animators, working together as the Quay Brothers. They are extremely influential in the field of stop-motion animation, creating dark and esoteric works that have built on several fascinating a..."

Duke Redbird

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , ,

"Duke Redbird was born in Saugeen First Nation, Ontario. Redbird is an accomplished writer, filmmaker, scholar, and artist. He is also an educator across Canada, collaborating with several schools to revise curriculums with the objective to decolon..."

Lotte Reiniger

Filed under: people, , , , ,

"Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was born in Charlottenburg in Berlin, Germany on June 2, 1899. Lotte Reiniger was a German animator who adapted the art of shadow-plays to film, pioneering and perfecting the technique of silhouette animation using her ..."

Virgil Ross

Filed under: people, , , , , ,

"Virgil Ross was an animator, cartoonist and artist - primarily known for his association with Warner Bros., working alongside legendary directors like Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Tex Avery. Known for his expressive and personal style of animation,..."

Ann “Little” Rothschild

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , ,

"Ann L. Rothschild, better known as Little Ann Little, started in show business in 1925 as a part of the Greenwich Village Follies. In the early 1930s, she auditioned for the part of a new cartoon character at Fleischer Studios. Impressed by her high-..."

Masahiko Satoh

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , ,

"Born in Tokyo in 1941, Masahiko Satoh is a pianist whose career has spanned six decades and over a hundred albums. His style is known for blending influences from American jazz with traditional Japanese music. Satoh's interest in music began at the ..."

Lou Scheimer

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , ,

"Louis "Lou" Scheimer was born on October 19th, 1928. He is best known for being the co-founder of American production company Filmation Associates—the leading company in TV animation throughout the 70s and 80s. The company was formed in 1962 alongs..."

Scott Bradley

Filed under: people, , , , , ,

"Scott Bradley was a film composer who wrote acclaimed music for many memorable cartoons during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. He is best known for his work at MGM, scoring the..."

Leon Searl

Filed under: people, , , , , , , ,

"Leon Searl (whose name is alternatively spelt "Leon Searle") got his start as a newspaper cartoonist, first working for the Pulitzer Papers on the comic strip "Jimmy Johnnypants" from November of 1905 to February of 1906. He later went on to write at..."

Ben Sharpsteen

Filed under: people, , , , , , , ,

"Ben Sharpsteen was born in Tacoma, Washington on November 4th, 1895 and got his start working for many of the major studios in New York including Hearst, Paramount, and F..."

Ōten Shimokawa

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , ,

"Ōten Shimokawa was one of the pioneers of Japanese animation, who is believed to have produced the very first “true” anime film.Shimokawa was born in Maiyakojima Prefecture in 1892, though moved to Tokyo when we was 9. He began his working life..."

Amer Shomali

Filed under: people, , ,

"Amer Shomali is a Palestinian artist interested in multi-media including painting, films, digital media, installations and comics, all of which he applies to address the socio-political landscape of Palestine. Graduated from Birzeit University, Pa..."

Jim Simon

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , ,

"Jim Simon is an artist and animator who created numerous commercials, public relation films, and entertainment and educational shorts during the 1970s and 1980s. Once dubbed “the Black Walt Disney” (even though he did not embrace the title), Simo..."

Tom Sito

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , ,

"Tom Sito is a highly influential American animator, animation historian and teacher, who has often been considered one of the key figures in the Disney Renaissance."

Isadore Sparber

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , ,

"An animator born in America, Sparber first got his start in animation through the Fleischer Studios in 1922. Contributing as an uncredited writer to Superman, Betty Boop and Popeyes cartoons, as well as on Fleischer features Gulliver's Travels,..."

Irv Spence

Filed under: people, , , , , ,

"Irv Spence was an American animator, sometimes credited as Irven or even Irvin Spence. Spence was best known for his work on MGM’s famous Tom and Jerry, cat and mouse series, but got his start in this month’s featured cartoon working for Ub Iwer..."

Carl W. Stalling

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , ,

"Carl Stalling was the composer of Warner Bros. Cartoon classic Looney Tunes, serving as composer and arranger for over 22 years and averaging the completion of a score per week. St..."

Władysław Starewicz / Ladislas Starevich

Filed under: people, ,

"Władysław Starewicz was a Russian/French stop motion animator who created the first puppet-animated film, The Beautiful Lukinda (1912). His films are characterized by the use of insects and animals in his films, intricately animated within fairytal..."

Amanda Strong

Filed under: people, , , ,

"Amanda Strong is an Indigenous artist and filmmaker whose work features stop-motion animation. She is from Mississauga, Ontario and has lived in Toronto and Montreal. She is currently based in unceded Coast Salish territory, also known as Vancouver...."

George Studdy

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

"George Studdy is an early British print cartoonist, commercial artist, and animator known for being the creator of Bonzo the Dog series in the 1920s. Studdy attended The Heatherley School of Fine Art to study drawing and painting (Cook 32; Fitzpat..."

Leo D. Sullivan

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

"Leo D. Sullivan began his career in 1959 after graduating from the Chouinard Art Institute. He first worked as an assistant to Warner Bros. producer Bob Clampett on the television show, Beany and Cecil. In 1965, Sullivan met fellow animator Floyd Nor..."

Pat Sullivan

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , ,

"Pat Sullivan was born in 1885 as Patrick Peter O’Sullivan in a working-class suburb of Darlinghurst, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Pat is best known for producing the Felix the Cat cartoons. There has been controversy surrounding who crea..."

Jan Švankmajer

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , ,

"Jan Švankmajer is a Czechoslovakian surrealist artist, filmmaker and animator. His work revolves around the exploration of imaginative meanings within objects of the everyday specifically through their tactile qualities. Filled with grotesque imager..."

Isao Takahata (高畑 勲)

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

"Isao Takahata (高畑 勲, 1935-2018) is a Japanese, director, screenwriter and producer. He is the co-founder of Studio Ghibli alongside his lifetime friend Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎駿).  Takahata was born in Ise and grew up in Okayama where his h..."

Frank Tashlin

Filed under: people, , ,

"Frank Tashlin was a legendary Oscar nominated director, writer, producer who was among the first to transition from directing animated cartoons at Warner Bros. into live-action comedi..."

Paul Terry

Filed under: people, , , , , ,

"Terry began his career as a reporter, photographer and cartoonist for San Francisco based San Francisco Bulletin, and San Francisco Call-Examiner, as well as New York based New York Press, and many others. During this time, Terry became interested in..."

Tezuka Osamu

Filed under: people, , , , ,

"Born on the 28th of November, 1928, the eldest of three children in a liberal, artistic family, Tezuka Osamu fostered an early love of illustration. He was particularly drawn to the illustrations of Jean-Henri Fabre, to the degree that he eventually ..."

Margaret Bray

Filed under: people, , ,

"Margaret Till Bray was a successful business woman who worked in real-estate, before meeting her husband John Randolph Bray. He installed her as the production manager at Bray Productions, ..."

Sammy Timberg

Filed under: people, , , , , , , ,

"Sammy Timberg was the musical director for Fleischer Studios and one of the most important composers of music in the history of American cartoons. Although Timberg had a long career that began in vaudeville in the 1910s, Timberg is best known for th..."

Walter Tournier

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

"Walter Tournier is a Uruguayan animator, director, and sculptor known for his specialization in stop-motion animation.  Tournier studied at the Faculty of Architecture in Montevideo when he discovered his true interest in film (“Walter Tournier..."

Jiří Trnka

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

"Jiří Trnka was born in Pilsen (now Plzeň), Bohemia in the Austro-Hungarian Empire on February 24, 1912. He was a Czech animator and illustrator who specialized in stop-motion puppetry animation. While he was known for illustrating children’s ..."

Elbert Tuganov

Filed under: people, , , , ,

"Elbert Tuganov was born February 22, 1920, in Baku, Azerbaijan. At four years old, he moved to Berlin where he lived with his aunt. Tuganov along with his colleague Heino Pars are cited as the fathers of puppet animation in Estonia. He is the foun..."

Hermína Týrlová

Filed under: people, , , , , , ,

"Often called the mother of Czech animation, Hermína Týrlová was a pioneer in the long Czech tradition of puppet and stop-motion animation. She helped to found animation production at the major company Ziln Studios, laying further groundwork for fu..."

Vladimir William (“Bill”) Tytla

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

"Vladimir Tytla worked as an animator for several studios, including his own. His happiest times, and best work, were done at Disney Studios where he felt a certain atmosphere of artistry and care for the animated product, which fed his deep interest ..."

Oliver Wallace

Filed under: people, , , , , , ,

"Born in England, Wallace studied music widely, in London as well as in Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. First relocating to Canada in 1904, Oliver eventually settled in the United States, becoming a citizen 10 years later in 1914. After compl..."

The Wan Brothers (万氏兄弟)

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

"The Wan Brothers (万氏兄弟) are the group entitlements of a total of brothers—Wan Jiazong (万嘉综), Wan Jiaqi (万嘉淇), Wan Jiajie (万嘉结), and Wan Jiakun (万嘉坤)—who later took aliases as Wan Laiming, Wan Guchan, Wan Chaochen, ..."

Tyrus Wong

Filed under: people,

"The recently deceased Tyrus Wong was an incredible landscape artist, he worked as a storyboard staff artist for Hollywood studios in the 1930's to 60's. Wong will be remembered for his work on Bambi, and was named a Disney Legend in 2001. "

Taiji Yabushita (藪下泰司)

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , ,

"Taiji Serushita graduated from Tokyo School of Fine Arts and studied photography. He is a pioneer of Japanese animation. After graduation, he joined the filming department of Matsuktake Co. Ltd. in 1925. Later, he worked in the film production equipm..."

Yan Dingxian (严定宪)

Filed under: people, , , , , , , , , , ,

"Yan Dingxian (严定宪) is the most renowned animator, character designer and director of early Chinese animation. He is the former president of Shanghai Animation Film Studio (SAFS, 上海美术电影制片厂), China Film Association (中国影协..."

Adolph Zukor

Filed under: people, , , , ,

"Adolph Zukor was a Hungarian-American film producer and businessman, known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures."