Animator Chuck Jones, Dead at 89
3 Time Olympic Gold Medalist in Snow Shovelling, Mr. Hole
OBIT/Academy Award-Winning Animation Director & Artist, Chuck Jones,
Passes Away at 89
HOLLYWOOD--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE)--Feb. 22, 2002--Chuck Jones, legendary
animation director and artist, best known for his work on the Warner
Bros. classic Looney Tunes cartoon series, died today of congestive
heart failure. Marian, his wife of 20 years, was by his side at their
home in Corona del Mar.
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.
During the Golden Age of animation Jones helped bring to life many of
Warner Bros. most famous characters -- Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer
Fudd and Porky Pig. The list of characters he created himself includes
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, as well as the feature-length film "The Phantom
Tollbooth." In addition, Jones was a prolific artist whose work has
been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide.
Jones often recalled a small child who, when told that Jones drew Bugs
Bunny, replied: "He doesn't draw Bugs Bunny. He draws pictures of Bugs
Bunny." His point was that the child thought of the character as being
alive and believable, which was, in Jones' belief, the key to true
character animation.
Born on September 21, 1912, in Spokane, Washington, Jones grew up in
Hollywood where he observed the talents of Charlie Chaplin and Buster
Keaton and worked occasionally as a child extra in Mac Sennett
comedies. After graduating from Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles
(now California Institute of the Arts), Jones drew pencil portraits
for a dollar apiece on Olvera Street. Then, in 1932, he got his first
job in the fledgling animation industry as a cel washer for former
Disney animator, Ubbe Iwerks.
In 1936 Jones became an animator for the Leon Schlesinger Studio
(later sold to Warner Bros.), and in 1938 directed his first film,
"The Night Watchman." Heading his own unit, Jones remained at Warner
Bros. Animation Dept. until it closed in 1962. During that time he and
several other directors developed and refined the personalities and
characteristics of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and many others.
He moved to MGM Studios where he created new episodes from the Tom and
Jerry cartoon series. While there, in addition to "The Phantom
Tollbooth" and "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas," 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
including Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki Tikki Tavi" and "The White Seal."
In the late 70s Jones and his daughter, Linda Jones Clough, pioneered
a continuing art business featuring limited edition images created by
Jones depicting scenes from his most enduring cartoons. One of those
films was the Wagnerian mini epic, "What's Opera, Doc?" which in 1992
was inducted into the National Film Registry for being "among the most
culturally, historically and aesthetically significant films of our
time."
In recent years, Jones' work has been honored at film festivals and
museums throughout the world, including a one-man retrospective at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York City. His autobiography, "Chuck
Amuck," appeared in 1989, now in its fifth printing. "Chuck Reducks,"
his follow-up to the first book, was published two years later.
Two years ago, Jones established the Chuck Jones Foundation, designed
to recognize, support and inspire continued excellence in the art of
classic character animation. Plans for the Foundation include
scholarships, library resources, touring exhibits, access to film,
notes and drawings.
Director Peter Bogdanovich once explained the enduring appeal of
Jones' work: "It remains, like all good fables and only the best art,
both timeless and universal."
Jones is survived by his wife, Marian, daughter Linda (by his first
wife, Dorothy Webster), brother Richard Kent Jones, three
grandchildren Todd Kausen, Craig Kausen and Valerie Ericsen, and six
great-grandchildren, Alex, Brittany, Charley, Jessica, Jake, and Jamie
Kausen, as well as by the daughter Rosalin Bellante, son, Peter Dern,
and three grandsons, Jason, Scott, and Kevin Bohrer of his wife (by
her previous marriage).
A memorial event will be held in Newport Beach at a later date.
Private services will be held for family only. In lieu of flowers,
contribution may be made in the name of Chuck Jones to the Motion
Picture & Television Fund or to the Chuck Jones Foundation.
Motion Picture & Television Fund
23388 Mulholland Drive
Woodland Hills, CA 91364
(818) 876-1888
The Chuck Jones Foundation
P.O. Box 2319
Costa Mesa, CA 92628-2319
(949) 660-7791
More information available at www.chuckjones.org
Note: A Photo is available at URL:
http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/photo.cgi?pw.022202/bb4
CONTACT:
Linda Jones Enterprises
&&
Mr. Hole
Travers Naran
<holef...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:29c78c92.02022...@posting.google.com...
> Well, this sucks.
>
> OBIT/Academy Award-Winning Animation Director & Artist, Chuck Jones,
> Passes Away at 89
This bites, blows AND sucks! My hero and life model growing up was Wile E.
Coyote, and I came to appreciate Chuck Jones as the man who gave him to me.
My favorite Chuck Jones cartoons are still his original Road Runner
episodes. I also like his longer pieces ("The Dot and the Line",
"Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" and of course, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas).
All in all, Chuck Jones was a talented animator with a wicked sense of
humor and wit which helped shaped my own sense of humor and comedic
stylings.
He will be missed.
The only other time a celebrity death moved me was when Jim Henson died.
--
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---
Travers Naran | Visit the SFTV Science Blunders
F/T Programmer,P/T Meddler In Time&Space | Hall of Infamy!
New Westminster, British Columbia, |
Canada, Earth, Milky Way, etc. |
http://www.geocities.com/naran500/
"Stand Back! I'm a programmer!" | ** UPDATED 10-Jan-2002 **
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
John VanSickle
>
> Well, this sucks.
Agreed.
Will his grave marker be an anvil?
--
"Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy,
and the lash." -- Winston Churchill
Franklin Harris
"Travers Naran" <tna...@direct.ca> wrote in message
news:DtHd8.14185$DS6.3...@news2.telusplanet.net...
> The only other time a celebrity death moved me was when Jim Henson died.
The funny thing is that I learned of Jones' death this morning, minutes
after I flipped on the TV and started watching Loony Toons on Cartoon
Network.
He's still with us... as long as we remember.
--
Franklin Harris
Pulp Culture Online, www.pulpculture.net
"I was sure of the Man in the Moon before I was certain of the moon." -- The
Kinks
Franklin Harris
"John VanSickle" <evil...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:3C7796C7...@hotmail.com...
> 3 Time Olympic Gold Medalist in Snow Shovelling, Mr. Hole wrote:
> >
> > Well, this sucks.
>
> Agreed.
>
> Will his grave marker be an anvil?
Damn you. I didn't want to laugh at that. But you made me. Damn you.
pete
> Jones often recalled a small child who, when told that Jones drew Bugs
> Bunny, replied: "He doesn't draw Bugs Bunny. He draws pictures of Bugs
> Bunny."
Jones was kind and tactful enough,
not to remind the small child who,
that the whos themselves,
were only cartoon characters which
he had created himself for the grinch to annoy.
--
pete
Travers Naran
> >
> > Well, this sucks.
>
> Agreed.
>
> Will his grave marker be an anvil?
Bastard. Chuck Jones would have appreciated that quip. :-)
I guess his funeral will be playing the Anvil Chorus.
Otto Bahn
> > > Well, this sucks.
> >
> > Agreed.
> >
> > Will his grave marker be an anvil?
>
> Damn you. I didn't want to laugh at that. But you made me. Damn you.
How many kids today would have any idea what
an anvil was if it weren't for cartoons?
"Hmmm...I recognize that weird shape. It
always seems to represent some sort of a
heavy object that squishes people. What the
hell?"
--oTTo--
Brian 'Jarai' Chase
John VanSickle <evil...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Will his grave marker be an anvil?
I'm tempted to get a small one, with R.I.P. engraved on it, so that it can
be placed with some flowers at his grave site.
-jarai.
--
--- Brian Chase | b...@world.std.com | http://world.std.com/~bdc/ -----
"Never program a computer you can lift." -- Barry Shein
Chris McGonnell
> Well, this sucks.
>
> OBIT/Academy Award-Winning Animation Director & Artist, Chuck Jones,
> Passes Away at 89
He was a great guy along with being a great interview. He visited Edinboro
University of PA several times to lecture students in its Animation
Department, but the lectures were switched to the auditorium because of the
crowds. A retired WB animator helped start the department and got Jones
involved.
Now that he's dead, I can reveal that Jones detested Orson Welles, who
narrated Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Welles felt the job was beneath his talents, but
the paycheck wasn't. Jones loved it when he started shilling California
wine.
R.I.P.
--
Chris McG.
Harming humanity since 1951
Bill Buckner taunts are Not Allowed in Boise. -- Dr. Rose
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Tyler D.
> The only other time a celebrity death moved me was when Jim Henson died.
I wasn't too happy when John and George died...
The Avocado Avenger
>Now that he's dead, I can reveal that Jones detested Orson Welles, who
>narrated Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Welles felt the job was beneath his talents, but
>the paycheck wasn't. Jones loved it when he started shilling California
>wine.
While some claim it's revisionist history, facts and papers and those
involved all point to Welles doing a lot of real crap to make money for
various independent projects he did. This doesn't explain his enormous
ego, but everything about the man was enormous - talent, ego, butt, etc.
It's a shame Welles couldn't be professional about it, and "Rikki-Tikki-
Tavi" wasn't crap (like, say, "Transformers") but numerous sources say
Welles was a real pain in the arse.
I'm sorry he pissed off Chuck Jones, who I worship with the same vigor
as I worship Welles. It would have been nice had they exchanged lovely
poetry and held hands in the park.
Stacia * The Avocado Avenger * Life is a tale told by an idiot;
http://world.std.com/~stacia/ * Full of sound and fury,
There is no guacamole anywhere. * Signifying nothing.
David Haren
: "Chris McGonnell" <sme...@key-net.net> writes:
:>Now that he's dead, I can reveal that Jones detested Orson Welles, who
:>narrated Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. Welles felt the job was beneath his talents, but
:>the paycheck wasn't. Jones loved it when he started shilling California
:>wine.
: While some claim it's revisionist history, facts and papers and those
: involved all point to Welles doing a lot of real crap to make money for
: various independent projects he did. This doesn't explain his enormous
: ego, but everything about the man was enormous - talent, ego, butt, etc.
: It's a shame Welles couldn't be professional about it, and "Rikki-Tikki-
: Tavi" wasn't crap (like, say, "Transformers") but numerous sources say
: Welles was a real pain in the arse.
: I'm sorry he pissed off Chuck Jones, who I worship with the same vigor
: as I worship Welles. It would have been nice had they exchanged lovely
: poetry and held hands in the park.
Be that as it may, Chuck E. Jones renditiom of the Ring
cycle raised Wagnerian epic to new heights.
More than you can say for Boulez version of same.
Isn't Welles the Martian bugger who snuck into
grovers mill but was foiled by Buckaroo Banzai ??
Shit no more Marvin the martian fro, the master.
Heck
consciousness and is noticeably improved.
(Sat, 23 Feb 2002 23:58:24 GMT)
>who I worship with the same vigor
Of what does your vigorous worship consist?
Wavy G
3 Time Olympic Gold Medalist in Snow Shovelling, Mr. Hole
news:29c78c92.02022...@posting.google.com...
> Well, this sucks.
>
i KNOW. I AM JONESNING FOR SOME OF HIS CLASSIC AMINATIONS RIGHT NOW. LOL?
Shiro Akaishi
>
> 3 Time Olympic Gold Medalist in Snow Shovelling, Mr. Hole
><holef...@webtv.net> wrote in message
> news:29c78c92.02022...@posting.google.com...
>> Well, this sucks.
>>
>
> i KNOW. I AM JONESNING FOR SOME OF HIS CLASSIC AMINATIONS RIGHT NOW. LOL?
<79,000,000 lines of repeat elided>
Yuo suck at teh replying.
--
/\ _____________ \ _()< -Quack! I
(__\ |Shiro Akaishi| \_/ am Png, the
) \. ------------- LL SigDuck!
/.
Tom Kraemer
> While some claim it's revisionist history, facts and papers and those
> involved all point to Welles doing a lot of real crap to make money for
> various independent projects he did. This doesn't explain his enormous
> ego, but everything about the man was enormous - talent, ego, butt, etc.
> It's a shame Welles couldn't be professional about it, and "Rikki-Tikki-
> Tavi" wasn't crap (like, say, "Transformers") but numerous sources say
> Welles was a real pain in the arse.
Nimoy thought Transformers was crap too, I know this because I asked him about
it at a Star Trek convention a million years ago and he told me to sit down
and shut up. He was probably pretty hammered.
Maybe that was his only chance to work with Welles?
--
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down?
We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.
- Jack Handey
Wavy G
Shiro Akaishi <aka...@skizzzzers.org> wrote in message
news:Xns91C0DA764AC...@209.249.90.101...
As long as we're going to git personal, you suck at ACSII sigs.
Shiro Akaishi
>> <79,000,000 lines of repeat elided>
>>
>> Yuo suck at teh replying.
<SIGSNIP!>
> As long as we're going to git personal, you suck at ACSII sigs.
THERE we go. Now you've done it right.
Almost a perfect example, with the bottom-posting and all. Still haven't
quite mastered the snippage though...
Jacob W. Haller
> Shiro Akaishi <aka...@skizzzzers.org> wrote in message
> news:Xns91C0DA764AC...@209.249.90.101...
>
> > Yuo suck at teh replying.
> >
> > --
> > /\ _____________ \ _()< -Quack! I
> > (__\ |Shiro Akaishi| \_/ am Png, the
> > ) \. ------------- LL SigDuck!
> > /.
>
> As long as we're going to git personal, you suck at ACSII sigs.
Do not mock the SigDuck! The SigDuck is all-knowing and powerful!
Although it does not have eyes or wings. But eyes and wings are
unnecessary.
It has four legs and a cubical brane, though. AS DO WE ALL.
-jwgh
--
My only problem is that the letter sounds vaguely menacing -- sort of
like receiving a threat from a post-modernist gangster, who makes you an
offer you can't understand.
- Charlie Stross in alt.sysadmin.recovery 17 Dec 1999
Wavy G
> on 26 Feb 2002, Wavy G did this!
>
> >> <79,000,000 lines of repeat elided>
> >>
> >> Yuo suck at teh replying.
>
> <SIGSNIP!>
>
> > As long as we're going to git personal, you suck at ACSII sigs.
>
> THERE we go. Now you've done it right.
>
> Almost a perfect example, with the bottom-posting and all. Still haven't
> quite mastered the snippage though...
>
So? You still haven't mastered the ACSII thing yet either. Come on..."Png
the SigDuck"? Jeemanites.
marci
look?
what's wrong with my sig, wavy? it isn't there, you son of a
beeeeyatch
Wavy G
marci <marc...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:ua7r7ucrcp9f77je4...@4ax.com...
I'll have it by tomorrow. Thats my word.
marci
peeeee!!!!!11!