R.I.P. Chuck Jones

[AKA]

Bugs Bunny Animator Chuck Jones Dies in California
Sat Feb 23, 1:06 AM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Chuck Jones, the Oscar-winning animator who helped bring Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck to life and personally created Wile E. Coyote and his fruitless hunt for the Road Runner, died Friday of congestive heart failure at age 89, his family said.

He ranked among Hollywood's greatest film animators and his achievements in the bop, bam and boom world of film cartoons often was compared to Walt Disney's.

His wife of 20 years, Marian, was at his side when he died at their home in the Southern California town of Corona del Mar, a statement from his family said.

Jones made more than 300 animated films, winning three Oscars as a director and was presented in 1996 with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.

During the 1930s and 1940s -- affectionately called the Golden Age of animation -- Jones helped bring to life many of Warner Bros. most famous characters in the so-called Looney Tunes series, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig.

The list of characters he created himself included Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin Martian, Pepe le Pew, Michigan J. Frog and many others.

He also produced, directed and wrote the screenplays for "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas," a television classic, and the feature-length film "The Phantom Tollbooth."

Born Sept. 21, 1912, in Spokane, Washington, Jones grew up in Hollywood where he worked occasionally as a child extra in silent-film comedies. After attending art school, Jones landed his first job in animation working for a former Disney animator, Ubbe Iwerks.

In 1936, Jones became an animator for the Leon Schlesinger Studio, which later was sold to Warner Bros, and in 1938 directed his first film, "The Night Watchman." Heading his own unit, Jones remained at Warner Bros. Animation Department until it closed in 1962.

During that time, he and several other directors developed such beloved characters as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. He moved to MGM Studios, where he created new episodes from the "Tom and Jerry" cartoon series. While there, Jones directed the Academy Award-winning film, "The Dot and the Line."

Jones established his own production company, Chuck Jones Enterprises, in 1962 and produced nine half-hour animation films for television. In the late 1970s, Jones and daughter Linda Jones Clough pioneered a limited-edition art business selling images created by Jones depicting scenes from his most-enduring cartoons. One of those films was the Wagnerian mini-epic, "What's Opera, Doc?"

Jones is survived by his wife, Marian, daughter Linda (by his first wife, Dorothy Webster), a brother, three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

[TJL]

Chuck Jones was a true artist.

His cartoons were beautifully made, well written and funny.

He turned Bugs Bunny into the wisecracking everyman, battling the big bullies who pushed people around.
He turned Daffy Duck from a silly troublemaker into the vain, greedy black duck who's delusions of his own grandeur were often deflated by Bugs.
Wiley Coyote became a super genius, chasing down the road runner through the bleak desert landscape with an endless supply of ACME mailorder mayhem.
He reinvented Tom and Jerry, infusing the cartoons with a manic jazzy score to make up for the complete absence of dialogue.

His cartoons were subversive, bizarre, sweet and sentimental, sometimes all within the same cartoon.

I will miss him.

[Bootsy Whoosh]

Oh no!!!! I LOVED Chuck Jones! This is a truely sad day!

[Céline]

Yes!It's really sad Thanks Mr.Jones for those wonderful characters that we enjoyed so much in our childhood and even today