Chuck Jones
From Anipedia
Charles Martin Jones, commonly know as Chuck Jones, was an American animator renowned for his work in classic cartoons such as Looney Tunes and the Merrie Melodies shorts. His other talents include screenwriting, producing, and directing animated films. Such films include the highly regarded What's Opera, Doc? cartoon, starring Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. In a career spanning over 60 years, Jones made more than 300 animated films, winning three Oscars as director and in 1996 an honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. Among the many awards and recognitions, one of those most valued was the honorary life membership from the Directors Guild of America.
Chuck Jones was born September 21 in Spokane, Washington, 1912, and died February 22, 2002.
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[edit] Notable Works
During the Golden Age of animation, through the late 40s to the 50s, Chuck Jones created many characters for his work at Warner Bros. Studios. Some of his most known characters are: Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote, Marvin Martian, Pepe le Pew and Michigan J. Frog. Other notable creations include Claude Cat, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot.
As for co-creations, he has credits for helping give life to characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig - not in terms of designing them, but helping grow their personalities and fame. A fine example would be that of Daffy Duck: in 1950, Jones and Michael Maltese (a storyboard director and writer that had worked with Jones before) began working on Rabbit Fire, a short that changed Daffy Duck's personality forever. Daffy used to be a wackier character, used mainly for comic relief - but since that short, his personality changed to what we see of him today: an egomaniac, wanting to steal the spotlight from his archenemy, Bugs Bunny.
When Warner Bros. closed, Jones moved to MGM studios, where he worked on new shorts for the animated series Tom and Jerry. He also directed films such as the Academy-Award winnerThe Dot and The Line. He created his own production company, Chuck Jones Enterprises, in 1962, and proceeded to work on nine half-hour long animations for television.
[edit] As an Artist
Jones was highly regarded for the quality of his drawings and paintings, which have been shown on a multitude of museums and exhibitons internationally. As of now, his work is being exposed at three galleries located in the United States. More information on those can be found here and here. For those interested, there is also an online catalog of some of his paintings.
[edit] Awards
Chuck received an astonishing number of awards in his lifetime. He directed three Academy Award winning films, and had six more nominated: he received an Honorary Oscar from the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1996; five Lifetime Achievement awards from different film festivals; many different Honorary Doctorates; a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; and many others. A complete list of his awards can be found on his Fact Sheet, at the official website.
[edit] Related Links
- Chuck Jones' Website
- Chuck Jones at IMDB
