The greatest Non-Disney animators IMO
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- Animation Department
Kenneth Muse was born on 26 July 1910. He is known for Super Friends (1973), Godzilla (1978) and The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show (1983). He was married to Oneta Sill. He died on 26 July 1987 in Templeton, California, USA.- Animation Department
- Director
- Producer
Preston Blair was born on 24 October 1908 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He was a director and producer, known for Bambi (1942), Pinocchio (1940) and Fantasia (1940). He died on 19 April 1995 in Santa Cruz, California, USA.- Animation Department
- Actor
- Visual Effects
Virgil Ross was a legendary animator who worked chiefly at Warner Brothers during the 'Golden Years of Animation'. Having moved through the ranks of the pioneering studios (as a trainee for Charles Mintz, in 1930, for $6 a week salary, and for Walter Lantz -- briefly -- in 1935), Ross joined Tex Avery at Leon Schlesinger's 'Termite Terrace'. He remained there until Warner Brothers dissolved their cartoon department in 1964. Thereafter, he delved into the world of low-budget animation, ending up at Filmation in the 60's and 70's, turning out 'Batman', 'Superman' and 'Star Trek' cartoons. Ross excelled at facial expression and had a keen eye for gesture and movement in his drawings. He was at his best designing action and dance sequences, ideally showcased in episodes like Rhapsody Rabbit (1946) (he was reputedly quite nimble on the dance floor himself). Moreover, he was instrumental in the development and maturation of the character who captained the Looney Tunes ship: Bugs Bunny (his creations included the rabbit's first Oscar-nominated short, A Wild Hare (1940)). During his lengthy tenure as a key member of Friz Freleng's unit, he also perfected perennial favorites Yosemite Sam (Knighty Knight Bugs (1958)) and Sylvester (Bad Ol' Putty Tat (1949), A Mouse Divided (1953),A Street Cat Named Sylvester (1953). etc). In 1988, Ross was honored with the highest accolade in animation, the Winsor McKay Achievement Award in animation.- Animation Department
- Director
- Additional Crew
Ken Harris was for 26 years one of the outstanding animators at Warner Brothers. He had no formal art school qualifications -- which effectively precluded him from working for Disney -- having started his career as a sports cartoonist for the "Los Angeles Examiner" and the "Evening Express". His training came courtesy of the genial Robert McKimson at Leon Schlesinger's 'Termite Terrace', where he was first hired as an 'inbetweener' in June 1935. By 1938, Harris had worked his way up from assistant to fully-fledged animator. Assigned to the Chuck Jones unit, he animated the original illustrations of Jones (and, later, those of Maurice Noble), turning out a succession of fast-paced, humorous cartoons, filled with satire, puns and in-jokes. Harris was a master at spacing and timing, of achieving perfect plasticity of movement. He collaborated on many of the classic Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies episodes (often capably assisted by Abe Levitow), including the first instalment of the Coyote/Road Runner series (Fast and Furry-ous (1949)). Other standout contributions must include The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), Rabbit Fire (1951), Duck Amuck (1953), Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953), One Froggy Evening (1955) and What's Opera, Doc? (1957). Harris remained loyal to Jones and followed him to MGM (1963-66) to animate 'Tom & Jerry' cartoons after the dissolution of the Warner Brothers animation department. In the 70's, Harris resumed working for Warner Brothers on frequent Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck specials. He also became lead animator for the Richard Williams studio in London, notably creating the title sequence of The Return of the Pink Panther (1975). A year before his death in 1982, he was made a recipient of animation's highest accolade, the Winsor McKay Lifetime Achievement Award.- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
Robert McKimson was born on October 13, 1910. He started his career in animation, along with many others, as an artist for Walt Disney's Oswald the Rabbit in 1928. After Disney went to produce Mickey Mouse cartoons, Hugh Harman & Rudolph Ising went to Warner Brothers to direct and co-produce cartoon shorts, along with producer Leon Schlesinger. McKimson was one of the many artists who tagged along. During his career at Warner Brothers, Robert McKimson developed into one of the most gifted artists ever. In fact, he was an animator under nearly all the major WB directors. They include Hugh Harman & Rudolph Ising (1930-1933), Friz Freleng (1933-1937), Frank Tashlin (1937-1938), Chuck Jones (1938-1940), Tex Avery (1940-1941), and Bob Clampett (1942-1946; animating under Clampett's supervision was when McKimson's drawing talents truly began to blossom). Robert McKimson was in part responsible for developing Bugs Bunny's popularity during the 1940's. Between 1942 & 1943, Bob Clampett gave a Bugs Bunny modeling assignment to McKimson, which soon became the basic Bugs Bunny model for all Warner Brothers animators. The models are still in use for WB animators of today. He also designed the familiar design in which Bugs Bunny leans on a tree while eating a carrot, which was originally on display at a Los Angeles department store for a holiday sale. McKimson finally got his chance to direct in 1943, in the WWII short, "Return of Mr. Hook, The". His premiere short, "Daffy Doodles", was released in 1946. His earlier supervising efforts was influenced by none other than Bob Clampett, the last director he worked for. During his earlier directing efforts, Robert McKimson's brother, Charles McKimson, became his leading animator, who had previously been working at Warner Brothers as an animator under Tex Avery's supervision. Thomas McKimson, Robert's second brother, was also an animator for Warner Brothers, mainly under Bob Clampett's supervision; he was also a background & layout artist for Clampett's later WB cartoons. Drawing had apparently ran in the McKimson family. As director, Robert McKimson was responsible for the creation of such WB characters as Foghorn Leghorn, Barnyard Dog, Hippity Hopper, Bobo the Elephant, Tasmanian Devil, Sylvester Jr., and Speedy Gonzales, and helped develop the personality of other characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and Elmer Fudd. He only directed two Oscar-nominated toons; "Walky Talky Hawky" (1946), and "Tobassco Road" (1957). Robert McKimson's supervising success was partially because of the writing efforts of Warren Foster. However, when Foster was 'permanently' placed under Friz Freleng's writing unit in 1956, McKimson's writing unit was replaced by Tedd Pierce. That was when his supervising talents began to slip. In addition, he lost all his original animators (not nearly having the same dramatic effects for the other Warner Brother directors), including Charles McKimson. Robert did some of the animating under his supervision for a while between 1955 & 1956, until he got a new team of directors, which completely changed his stylization. Along with the change of writers & artists, Robert McKimson soon developed a 'squarer style', which from that point on scarred his cartooning career as his quality began to fall behind the other WB directors. The close-up of the original Warner Brothers' Cartoon Studio in 1963 was when Robert McKimson's career started to hit rock bottom. When the original WB Cartoon Studio closed, Friz Freleng quickly teamed up with David DePatie to form DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, in hopes of creating more WB cartoons. McKimson naturally tagged along, directing most of the less popular toon shorts of the 1960's, even the ones under Billy Hendrick's WB production in the latter of the 60's after DePatie-Freleng left WB in 1967. After the Warner Brothers cartoons' second diminishment in 1970, McKimson returned to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises to direct some Pink Panther cartoons. At that point, the careers of a lot of the remaining cartoonists, whom were once well-known during the 40's & 50's, had been detracted as well. In 1977, on his 66th birthday, McKimson had a doctor's appointment, when he was listed in good health. He decided to celebrate that evening. Unfortunately, while he was dining at a Burbank restaurant with Friz Freleng and other colleagues, Robert McKimson died of a massive heart attack (known as coronary). This came only years before his cartoons became part of the Warner Brothers' 'Looney Tunes renaissance' of the 1980's. Robert McKimson's cartooning career since its decline in the early 1960's, and his relatively early death in 1977 had mostly been pushed in the background from true recognition. But among many of today's cartoonists, McKimson still remains one of the most influential artists ever.- Animation Department
- Art Department
- Director
Rod Scribner was one of the most original and innovative animators of the golden age of Hollywood cartoons. He spent most of his career at the Leon Schlesinger/Warner Bros. cartoon studio working as an animator for the directors Tex Avery (1936-1941), Robert Clampett (1941-1945), and Robert McKimson (1948-1953) on their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. It was under Clampett's direction, though, that Scribner did his best work. During this period Scribner developed a unique style of animation, one that broke away from the literalistic animation done at the time and into something far more expressive. He employed a level of exaggeration and distortion never before seen in an animated cartoon, which he used to illustrate the inner emotions of the cartoon characters in a humorous way. Examples of this can been seen to great effect in the cartoons Baby Bottleneck (1946) where Porky tries to get Daffy to sit on an egg, stretching the duck's leg several feet in the process; and in the controversial Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943) during Prince Chawmin' frenetic attempts to revive So White. His work influenced the other animators at the studio and they employed some of Scribner's innovations until eventually it became the Warner "house style." Even Scribner's methods were idiosyncratic: he would sometimes animate using a brush and ink. After he left Warners, Scribner worked on a variety of animated commercials at Playhouse Pictures, Cascade, and Jay Ward Productions. He directed a few episodes of The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show (1956) and animated for the _"George of the Jungle" (1967)_ television show. In the 1970s he spent five days working on Fritz the Cat (1972) before quitting.- Animation Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Visual Effects
Irven Spence was born on 24 April 1909 in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. He was an assistant director, known for Rugged Rangers (1942), Rats in Spats (1941) and The Lord of the Rings (1978). He died on 21 September 1995 in Dallas, Texas, USA.- Director
- Animation Department
- Additional Crew
Raymond "Ray" Patterson was an American animator. and director of animated films. He was born in Hollywood, California.
Patterson started his animation career in 1929, as an inker for the Mintz studio, the animation studio created by producer Charles Mintz (1889-1939). He remained there when the studio was renamed to "Screen Gems", and remained there for the entire 1930s decade.
In 1940, Patterson was hired as animator for the Walt Disney Animation Studio, where he remained until 1943. He served as an animator for the feature films "Fantasia" (1940) and "Dumbo" (1941). He also worked in the studio's short film department. He at first worked mostly in the Pluto film series, but then worked on the even more popular Donald Duck series.
In 1943, Patterson was hired as an animator by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, where he would continue working until 1954. He mostly served as an animator for the production unit co-headed by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, focusing on the then-popular Tom and Jerry film series. However, he also worked at times with Tex Avery's production unit, and even served under Dick Lundy (Avery's substitute director ).
In 1954, Patterson served as one of the founders of Grantray-Lawrence Animation, an animation studio mostly focusing on television commercials. In the 1960s, Grantray-Lawrence produced the animated television series"The Marvel Super Heroes" (1966) and "Spider-Man" (1967-1970), with Patterson still one of their animators. He left the studio in 1967, when it faced bankruptcy.
In 1967, Patterson was hired by Hanna-Barbera, the animation studio created by his former MGM bosses. He was eventually promoted to a supervising director for many of the studio's animated series and films from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Patterson held the position of Vice President of the studio for a number of years. He retired in 1993, at the age of 82.
In 1999, Patterson received a Winsor McCay Award for contributions to animation. He died in 2001, reportedly of natural causes. He died shortly before his 90th birthday.- Animation Department
- Director
- Writer
Grant Simmons was born on 11 November 1912 in Arizona, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Dumbo (1941), Fantasia (1940) and Spider-Man (1967). He died on 31 October 1970 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Animation Department
- Additional Crew
- Director
Walter Clinton was a layout artist in the animation industry, best known for his work for Hanna-Barbera in the 1950s and 1960s. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and began his career in animation as a character designer in Tex Avery's studio at MGM. He worked on animated commercials for Five Star Productions from 1953 to 1957, and then joined Hanna-Barbera. He was a layout artist on shows like 'The Flinstones', 'The Ruff & Reddy Show' 'Top Cat', 'The Yogi Bear Show', 'The Huckleberry Hound Show' and 'Quick Draw McGraw'. Clinton was characterized to draw great part of the human characters with the low ear in the H-B cartoons of the period. It is said that he also drew the first installments of the 'Flinstones' daily comic strip under supervision of Gene Hazelton in October 1961. During his career, he developed several personal comic strips, that never went into syndication. He retired in 1969 and died in Sun City, Arizona, on 15 January 1992.- Animation Department
- Director
- Actor
Michael Lah was born on 1 September 1912 in Illinois, USA. He was a director and actor, known for Tom and Jerry Classic Collection Volume 3 (1953), Tom and Jerry Classic Collection Volume 4 (1956) and Journey Back to Oz (1972). He died on 13 October 1995 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Animation Department
- Actor
Ed Barge was born on 29 August 1910 in San Jose, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Charlotte's Web (1973), Super Friends (1973) and Space Ghost (1966). He died on 29 September 1991 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.- Animation Department
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ed Love was born on 24 May 1910 in Tremont, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an assistant director, known for Fantasia (1940), Fantasia 2000 (1999) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987). He died on 6 May 1996 in Valencia, California, USA.- Animation Department
- Writer
- Visual Effects
Ray Abrams was born on 19 April 1906 in Utah, USA. Ray was a writer, known for It's the Wolf (1969), Linus the Lionhearted (1964) and Hot for Hollywood (1930). Ray died on 4 June 1981 in California, USA.