Biography for
Tex Avery More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

26 February 1908, Taylor, Texas, USA

Date of Death

26 August 1980, Burbank, California, USA (lung cancer)

Birth Name

Frederick Bean Avery

Mini Biography

Tex Avery was a descendant of Judge Roy Bean and Daniel Boone, but all his grandma ever told him about it was "Don't ever mention you are kin to Roy Bean. He's a no good skunk!!" After graduating from North Dallas High School in 1927, Avery moved to Southern California in 1929 and got a job in the harbor. After showing samples of his artwork he got a job at Walter Lantz Studios in 1929 as animator. His contributions during the years at Walter Lantz Studios were minor. From 1936 to 1941 he worked as supervisor - another word for cartoon director - of some 60 titles in the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes series for Leon Schlesinger at Warner's. From 1942 to 1954 Avery worked as director of cartoons at MGM. He was responsible for practically every MGM Cartoon that did not feature Tom and Jerry. In 1955 he did four cartoons, again for Walter Lantz Studios, before leaving the field for advertising, where, alas, his unique sense of humor went largely unappreciated, but primarily because commercials are not credited for the viewing audience (perhaps his best known commercial work was for Raid bug spray, which always featured the cartoon bugs screaming "Raid!" before getting smashed.)

Among the many cartoon characters Avery created are Daffy Duck, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel and Chilly Willy. Tex Avery is also credited with creating the basic personality of Bugs Bunny. He was the one who coined the phrase "What's up, Doc?"

IMDb Mini Biography By: Reidar Lyng

Trade Mark

Liked to interrupt the action of his films, to give a comment that always ended with "...isn't it?" ie. having a cowboy chase scene suddenly replaced with the sentence, "Exciting, isn't it?"

Trivia

Was accidentally blinded in the left eye by Charles Hastings during a rubber-band propelled paper clip fight at Walter Lantz Studios. Because of this, he had no depth perception.

According to biographer Joe Adamson, when Tex was working on the cartoon A Wild Hare (1940) (which is the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon), they were looking for something for the rabbit to say when Elmer Fudd pointed his gun to the rabbit's head, Tex, off of the top of his head, said, "How about 'What's up doc?' " He used "doc" on many of his other cartoons before this, but nobody seemed to notice. "Doc" was an expression used at North Dallas High School, which Tex attended, by many students.

In addition to his role as supervising director, he also added his voice to several cartoons, for example playing Santa Claus in Who Killed Who? (1943) and lending his distinctive laugh to the bulldog in Bad Luck Blackie (1949).

Personal Quotes

He wasn't Bugs without the gags we gave him.

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