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Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 animator
Animator

An animator is an artist who creates multiple images called frames and Key frames that form an illusion of movement called animation when rapidly displayed....
, cartoonist
Cartoonist

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. Traditionally much of this work was, and still is, humorous, and is intended primarily for entertainment purposes....
, voice Actor and director
Film director

A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a film. A film director visualizes the Screenplay, controlling a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of his or her vision....
, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, creating the characters of Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball comedy film" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who were more popular ear...
, Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is a fictional rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animation films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros....
, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, and developing Porky Pig
Porky Pig

Porky Pig is an animation fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig....
 and Chilly Willy
Chilly Willy

Chilly Willy is a cartoon character, a diminutive anthropomorphic penguin living in Fairbanks, Alaska, although the species is native only to the southern hemisphere....
 (this last one for the Walter Lantz Studio
Walter Lantz Studio

Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1929 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios, now part of the media conglomerate NBC Universal....
) into regular cartoon characters.






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Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 animator
Animator

An animator is an artist who creates multiple images called frames and Key frames that form an illusion of movement called animation when rapidly displayed....
, cartoonist
Cartoonist

A cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. Traditionally much of this work was, and still is, humorous, and is intended primarily for entertainment purposes....
, voice Actor and director
Film director

A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a film. A film director visualizes the Screenplay, controlling a film's artistic and dramatic aspects, while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of his or her vision....
, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, creating the characters of Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball comedy film" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who were more popular ear...
, Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is a fictional rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animation films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros....
, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, and developing Porky Pig
Porky Pig

Porky Pig is an animation fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig....
 and Chilly Willy
Chilly Willy

Chilly Willy is a cartoon character, a diminutive anthropomorphic penguin living in Fairbanks, Alaska, although the species is native only to the southern hemisphere....
 (this last one for the Walter Lantz Studio
Walter Lantz Studio

Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1929 to 1972 and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Studios, now part of the media conglomerate NBC Universal....
) into regular cartoon characters. His influence was found in almost all of the animated cartoon series by various studios in the 1940s and 1950s.

Avery's style of directing broke the mold of strict realism established by Walt Disney
Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney was a multiple Academy Award-winning American film producer, film director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur and philanthropist....
, and encouraged animators to stretch the boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of live-action film. An often-quoted line about Avery's cartoons was, "In a cartoon you can do anything," and his cartoons often did just that. He also performed a great deal of voice work in his cartoons, usually throwaway bits (e.g. the Santa Claus seen briefly in Who Killed Who?
Who Killed Who?

Who Killed Who? is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio animated short directed by Tex Avery for MGM. The cartoon is a parody of whodunit stories and employs many clich?s of the genre for humor....
), but Tex did on occasion fill in for Bill Thompson
Bill Thompson (voice actor)

Bill Thompson was an United States radio actor and voice actor whose career stretched from the 1930s until his death.Born to vaudevillian parents, Thompson began his career in Chicago radio, where his early appearances included appearances as a regular on Don McNeill 's morning variety series The Breakfast Club in 1934 and a stint as...
 as Droopy. Avery provided every line spoken by Droopy in three cartoons (The Shooting of Dan McGoo
The Shooting Of Dan McGoo

The Shooting of Dan McGoo is a cartoon directed by Tex Avery. It starred Paul Frees as the Wolf. Both Avery and Bill Thompson voiced the lead character Droopy....
, Wild and Woolfy
Wild And Woolfy

Wild and Woolfy is a cartoon which was one of six cartoons in which Droopy was paired with a wolf. and It was one of two cartoons where Bill Thompson did not portray droopy in any part of the cartoon....
 and Northwest Hounded Police
Northwest Hounded Police

Northwest Hounded Police is a cartoon starring a prototypical dog resembling Droopy and Tex Avery's wolf. This cartoon revoles the wolf on the run from Droopy, who is trailing the wolf in order to capture him....
)..

Biography


Early years


Tex Avery was born to George Walton Avery (b. June 8, 1867 - d. January 14, 1935) and the former Mary Augusta "Jessie" Bean (1886 - 1931) in Taylor, Texas
Taylor, Texas

Taylor is a city in Williamson County, Texas, Texas, United States. The population was 13,575 at the 2000 census; it was 15,014 in the 2005 census estimate....
. His father was born in Alabama
Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the Southern United States of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west....
. His mother was born in Buena Vista
Buena Vista

Buena Vista, meaning "pleasant view" in Spanish, may refer to:*Buena Vista , a Walt Disney trademark*Buena Vista Social Club , a Cuban music club plus an album and film inspired by the club...
, Chickasaw County
Chickasaw County, Mississippi

Chickasaw County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of 2000, the population was 19,440. Its county seats are Houston, Mississippi and Okolona, Mississippi....
, Mississippi
Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Deep South of the United States. Jackson, Mississippi is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Anishinaabe language word misi-ziibi ....
. His paternal grandparents were Needham Avery (Civil War veteran) (October 8, 1838 - after 1892) and his wife Lucinda C. Baxly (May 11, 1844 - March 10, 1892). His maternal grandparents were Frederick Mumford Bean (1852 - October 23, 1886) and his wife Minnie Edgar (July 25, 1854 - May 7, 1940). Avery was said to be a descendant of Judge Roy Bean
Roy Bean

Phantly Roy Bean, Jr. , was an eccentric U.S. bar and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas, Texas, who called himself "The Law West of the Pecos River"....
. However his maternal great-grandparents were actually Mumford Bean from Tennessee (August 22, 1805 - October 10, 1892) and his wife Lutica from Alabama. Mumford was son of William Bean and his wife Nancy Blevins from Virginia. Their relation to Roy is uncertain though his paternal grandparents were also from Virginia. Avery's family tradition also claimed descent from Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone

Daniel Boone [October 22 , 1734 – September 26, 1820] was an American pioneer and hunting whose frontier exploits made him one of the first Folklore of the United States of the United States....
.

Avery was raised in his native Taylor, though he graduated in 1927 from North Dallas High School
North Dallas High School

North Dallas High School is a public school secondary school located in the Oak Lawn, Dallas area of Dallas, Texas, Texas, .North Dallas enrolls students in Educational stages ninth grade-twelfth grade and is a part of the Dallas Independent School District....
. A popular catchphrase at his school was "What's up, doc?", which he would later popularize with Bugs Bunny in the 1940s.

Avery first began his animation career at the Walter Lantz studio in the early 1930s, working on the majority of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is an anthropomorphic rabbit animated cartoon character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney for films distributed by Universal Studios in the 1920s and 1930s....
 cartoons from 1931-35. He is shown as 'animator' on the original title card credits on the Oswald cartoons. He later claimed to have directed two cartoons during this time. During some office horseplay, a paperclip
Paperclip

A paper clip is an instrument used to securely attach sheets of paper together, whilst allowing them to be detached as necessary....
 flew into Avery's left eye and caused him to lose use of that eye. Some speculate it was his lack of depth perception that gave him his unique look at animation and bizarre directorial style.

"Termite Terrace"


Avery migrated to the Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger

Leon Schlesinger was an USA film producer, most noted for founding Warner_Bros._Cartoons#1933_-_1944:_Leon_Schlesinger_Productions, which later became the Warner Bros....
 studio in late 1935 and convinced the fast-talking Schlesinger to let him head his own production unit of animator
Animator

An animator is an artist who creates multiple images called frames and Key frames that form an illusion of movement called animation when rapidly displayed....
s and create cartoons the way he wanted them to be made. Schlesinger responded by assigning the Avery unit, including animators Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett

Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an United States animator, film producer, film director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes series of cartoons from Warner Bros....
 and Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones

Charles Martin "Chuck" Jones was an American animator, cartoon artist, screenwriter, film producer, and film director of animation films, most memorably of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts for the Warner Bros....
, to a five-room bungalow
Bungalow

A bungalow is a type of single-story house that originated in India. The word derives from the Gujarati word ba?glo, which in turn came from Hindustani ba?gla....
 at the Warner Bros. Sunset Blvd. backlot
Backlot

A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio with space to build or with permanent exterior Set construction for outdoor scenes in film and/or television productions....
. Schlesinger placed the Avery unit there so as not to tip off Avery's predecessor Tom Palmer
Tom Palmer (animator)

Tom Palmer was an Italian American animator who was active in the 1930s and worked at several animation studios. He was born with the surname of "Pipolo" but changed his name to Palmer....
 that he was about to be fired. The Avery unit, assigned to work primarily on the black-and-white Looney Tunes
Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series which ran in many movie theatres from 1930 to 1969. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and is Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series....
 instead of the Technicolor
Technicolor

Technicolor is the trademark for a series of Color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation , now a division of Thomson SA....
 Merrie Melodies
Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animation distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969. The sister series to Warner's Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies were originally one-shot musical film cartoon shorts before gradually featuring recurring characters....
, soon dubbed their quarters "Termite Terrace", due to its significant termite
Termite

The termites are a group of social insects usually classified at the Taxonomy of Order Isoptera . As truly social animals, they are termed eusocial along with the ants and some bees and wasps which are all placed in the separate Order Hymenoptera....
 population.

"Termite Terrace" later became the nickname for the entire Schlesinger/Warners studio, primarily because Avery and his unit were the ones who defined what became known as "the Warner Bros. cartoon". Their first short, Gold Diggers of '49
Gold Diggers of '49

Gold Diggers of '49 is a 1935 Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon short in the Looney Tunes series. This film is the very first cartoon directed by Tex Avery for Warner Brothers., and is the second Warners cartoon to feature the character Porky Pig....
, is recognized as the first cartoon to make Porky Pig
Porky Pig

Porky Pig is an animation fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his celebrity, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts using the fat little pig....
 a star, and Avery’s experimentation with the medium continued from there.

Creation of Looney Tunes stars

Avery, with the assistance of Clampett, Jones, and new associate director Frank Tashlin
Frank Tashlin

Frank Tashlin was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director....
, laid the foundation for a style of animation that dethroned The Walt Disney Studio as the kings of animated short films, and created a legion of cartoon stars whose names still shine around the world today. Avery in particular was deeply involved; a perfectionist, Avery constantly crafted gags for the shorts, periodically provided voices for them (including his trademark belly laugh), and held such control over the timing of the shorts that he would splice frames out of the final negative if he felt a gag's timing was not quite right.

Daffy Duck

Porky's Duck Hunt
Porky's Duck Hunt

Porky's Duck Hunt is an animated short film produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, directed by Tex Avery, and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros....
 introduced the character of Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck

Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Daffy was the first of the new breed of "screwball comedy film" characters that emerged in the late 1930s to supplant traditional everyman characters, such as Mickey Mouse and Popeye, who were more popular ear...
, who possessed a new form of "lunacy" and zaniness that had not been seen before in animated cartoons. Daffy was an almost completely out-of-control "darn fool duck" who frequently bounced around the film frame in double-speed, screaming "Hoo-hoo! hoo-hoo" in a high-pitched, sped-up voice provided by veteran Warners voice artist Mel Blanc
Mel Blanc

Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an United States voice acting and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio and television commercials, Blanc is best known for his work with Warner Bros....
.

Bugs Bunny
Avery's 1940 film A Wild Hare
A Wild Hare

A Wild Hare is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film. It was produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, directed by Tex Avery, and written by Rich Hogan....
 is seen as the first cartoon to feature Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is a fictional rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animation films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros....
, after a series of shorts featuring a Daffy Duck-like rabbit directed by Ben Hardaway
Ben Hardaway

Joseph Benson "Ben/Bugs" Hardaway was a storyboard artist, animator, voice actor, gagman, writer, and film director for several USA animation studios during the The Golden Age of Hollywood animation....
, Cal Dalton
Cal Dalton

Cal Dalton was a cartoon Animation director at Warner Brothers. Dalton's first commercial animation work was on an animated short version of The Wizard of Oz that was produced by Ted Eshbaugh's independent animation studio in 1933....
 and Chuck Jones. Avery's rabbit was a super-cool rabbit who was always in control of the situation and who ran rings around his opponents. A Wild Hare also marks the first pairing of him and bald, meek Elmer Fudd
Elmer Fudd

Elmer J. Fudd is a fictional cartoon character and one of the most famous Looney Tunes characters. He has one of the more disputed origins in the Warner Brothers cartoon pantheon ....
, a revamp of Avery's Egghead, a big nosed little fellow who, in turn, was modeled after radio comedian Joe Penner
Joe Penner

Joe Penner , was a Hungarian-born United States 1930s-era vaudeville, radio and film comedian. He was born Pint?r J?zsef in Zrenjanin, Hungary ....
. It is in A Wild Hare that Bugs casually walks up to Elmer, who is out "hunting wabbits", and asks him calmly, "What's up, doc?" Audiences reacted positively to the juxtaposition of Bugs' nonchalance and the potentially dangerous situation, and Avery made "What's up, doc?" the rabbit's catch phrase
Catch phrase

A catch phrase is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such memetic phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through a variety of mass media , as well as word of mouth....
. Later Warner's named Avery's Rabbit Bugs Bunny after Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and an earlier rabbit.

Avery ended up directing only four Bugs Bunny cartoons: A Wild Hare, Tortoise Beats Hare
Tortoise Beats Hare

Tortoise Beats Hare is a 1941 Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Tex Avery. The short stars Bugs Bunny and, in his first appearance, Cecil Turtle....
, All This and Rabbit Stew
All This and Rabbit Stew

All This and Rabbit Stew is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Merrie Melodies series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on September 20, 1941 by Warner Bros....
, and The Heckling Hare
The Heckling Hare

The Heckling Hare is a Merrie Melodies cartoon, released on July 12, 1941 and featuring Bugs Bunny and a dopey dog named Willoughby the Dog....
. During this period, he also directed a number of one-shot shorts, including travelogue
Travelogue (films)

Travelogue films, a form of virtual tourism or travel documentary, have been providing information and entertainment about distant parts of the world since the late 19th century....
 parodies
Parody

A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation....
 (The Isle of Pingo Pongo
The Isle of Pingo Pongo

The Isle of Pingo Pongo is a 1938 Warner Bros. cartoon directed by Tex Avery. It is a spoof of the travelogue of the 1930s. The cartoon was banned from TV syndication in 1968 by United Artists for alleged racism and is one of the "Censored Eleven"....
), fractured fairy-tales (The Bear's Tale), Hollywood caricature
List of cartoons featuring Hollywood celebrities

The following is a list of animated cartoons featuring Hollywood celebrity, arranged in chronological order. The list may be incomplete:...
 films (Hollywood Steps Out), and cartoons featuring Bugs Bunny clones (The Crack-Pot Quail).

Avery's tenure at the Schlesinger studio ended in late 1941, when he and the producer quarreled over the ending to The Heckling Hare. In Avery's original version, Bugs and hunting dog
Dog

The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
 were to fall off of a cliff three times, milking the gag to its comic extreme. According to a DVD commentary for the cartoon, historian and animator Greg Ford
Greg Ford

Greg Ford is an animator, Animation director, historian and consultant to Warner Bros. Animation. He is perhaps best known for directing the films Daffy Duck's Quackbusters and Bunny ....
 explained that the problem Schlesinger had with the ending was that, just prior to falling off the third time, Bugs and the dog were to turn to the screen, with Bugs saying "Hold on to your hats, folks, here we go again!" This line was known at the time as being associated with a risque gag, and the audiences might think there was a connection between the ending and the punch line. Schlesinger intervened (supposedly on orders from Jack Warner
Jack Warner

Jack Leonard "J.L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, Canada, was the president and driving force behind the successful development of Warner Bros....
 himself), and edited the film so that the characters only fall off the cliff twice (the edited cartoon ends abruptly, after Bugs and the Dog fall through a hole in a cliff and immediately stop short of the ground, saying to the audience, "Heh, fooled you, didn't we?"). An enraged Avery promptly quit the studio, leaving three cartoons he started on but did not complete. They were Crazy Cruise, The Cagey Canary and Aloha Hooey. Bob Clampett picked up where Avery left off, and completed the three cartoons.

Speaking of Animals


While at Schlesinger, Avery created a concept of animating lip movement to live action footage of animals. Schlesinger was not interested in Avery's idea, so Avery approached Jerry Fairbanks
Jerry Fairbanks

Gerald Bertram Fairbanks was a producer and director in the Hollywood motion picture and television industry.Fairbanks survived the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and began his career in film as a cameraman on silent movies such as John Barrymore's The Sea Beast ....
, a friend of his who produced the Unusual Occupations series of short subjects for Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production company and distribution company, located on Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California....
. Fairbanks liked the idea and the Speaking of Animals
Speaking of Animals and Their Families

Speaking of Animals and Their Families is a 1942 in film short subject comedy film directed by Robert Carlisle and Jerry Fairbanks. It won an Academy Award in 15th Academy Awards for Academy Award for Live Action Short Film....
 series of shorts was launched. When Avery left Warner, he went straight to Paramount to work on the first three shorts in the series before joining MGM.

Avery at MGM


By 1942, Avery was in the employ of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, working in their cartoon division under the supervision of Fred Quimby
Fred Quimby

__forcetoc__Frederick C. "Fred" Quimby was the film producer in charge of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, which most notably included Tex Avery and the team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, creators of Tom and Jerry ....
. Avery felt that Schlesinger had stifled him; at MGM, Avery's creativity reached its peak. His cartoons became known for their sheer lunacy, breakneck pace, and a penchant for playing with the medium of animation and film in general that few other directors dared to approach. MGM also offered him larger budgets and a higher quality production level than the Warners studio. Plus, his unit was filled with ex-Disney artists such as Preston Blair
Preston Blair

Preston Blair was an USA character animator, most noted for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation department...
 and Ed Love. These changes were evident in Avery's first short released by MGM, The Blitz Wolf, an Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born Germany politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party....
 parody which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons)
Academy Award for Animated Short Film

The Academy Award for Animated Short Film is an award which has been given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as part of the Academy Awards every year since the 5th Academy Awards, covering the year 1931-32, to the present....
 in 1942.

Avery's most famous MGM character debuted in 1943's Dumbhounded. Droopy (originally "Happy Hound") was a calm, little, slow-moving and slow-talking dog who still won out in the end. He also created a series of racy and risqué cartoons, beginning with 1943's Red Hot Riding Hood
Red Hot Riding Hood

Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field....
, featuring a sexy female star who never had a set name and whose visual design and voice varied somewhat between shorts, but who influenced the minds of young boys — and future animators — worldwide. Other Avery characters at MGM included Screwy Squirrel and the Of Mice and Men
Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men is a novella written by Nobel Prize in Literature-winning author John Steinbeck. Published in 1937 in literature, it tells the tragic story of George Milton and Lennie Small, two displaced migrant worker ranch workers during the Great Depression in California....
-inspired duo of George and Junior
George and Junior

George and Junior was a short lived animation cartoon series by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. All of the original, 1940s shorts were directed by Tex Avery, who based them on George and Lennie from John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men....
.

Other notable MGM cartoons directed by Avery include Bad Luck Blackie, Magical Maestro
Magical Maestro

Magical Maestro is a 1952 animated short film directed by Tex Avery and produced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. It tells the story of Poochini, a canine opera singer who spurns a magician....
, Lucky Ducky, and King-Size Canary
King-Size Canary

King-Size Canary is an animated cartoon short that debuted in movie theaters in 1947. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by cartoon legend Tex Avery....
. Avery began his stint at MGM working with lush colors and realistic backgrounds, but he slowly abandoned this style for a more frenetic, less realistic approach. The newer, more stylized look reflected the influence of the up-and-coming UPA
United Productions of America

United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an United States animation studio of the 1940s through present day, beginning with industrial films and World War II training films....
 studio, the need to cut costs as budgets grew higher, and Avery's own desire to leave reality behind and make cartoons that were not tied to the real world of live action. During this period, he made a notable series of films which explored the technology
Technology

Technology is a broad concept that deals with an animal species' usage and knowledge of tools and crafts, and how it affects an animal species' ability to control and adapt to its Natural environment....
 of the future: The House of Tomorrow, The Car of Tomorrow, The Farm of Tomorrow and The TV of Tomorrow (spoofing common live-action promotional shorts of the time). He also introduced a slow-talking wolf character, who was the prototype for MGM associates Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. , was an American List of animation studios that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century....
's Huckleberry Hound
Huckleberry Hound

Hanna-Barbera's second series, made specifically for television, The Huckleberry Hound Show was a 1958 Syndication animated series. Three segments were included in the program: one featuring Huckleberry Hound; Yogi Bear and his sidekick Boo Boo ; and Pixie and Dixie, two mice who in each short found a new way to outwit the cat Mr....
 character, right down to the voice by Daws Butler
Daws Butler

Daws Butler was a voice actor born in Toledo, Ohio, Ohio. He originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, and Huckleberry Hound....
.

Avery took a year sabbatical from MGM beginning in 1950, during which time Dick Lundy
Dick Lundy (animator)

Richard "Dick" Lundy , was an United States animator and film director best known for creating Donald Duck.Lundy worked for a number of studios, including Walt Disney Productions , Walter Lantz, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and is most notable for directing Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, and Barney Bear cartoons....
, recently arrived from the Walter Lantz studio, took over his unit and made one Droopy cartoon, as well as a string of shorts with an old character, Barney Bear
Barney Bear

Barney Bear was a series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, the Tom and Jerry's himself creation....
. Avery returned to MGM in October 1951 and began working again. Avery's last two original cartoons for MGM were Deputy Droopy and Cellbound, completed in 1953 and released in 1955. They were co-directed by Avery unit animator Michael Lah
Michael Lah

Michael Richard Lah was an United States animator. He is best known for his work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, primarily as a member of Tex Avery's animation unit....
. Lah began directing a handful of CinemaScope
CinemaScope

CinemaScope was a widescreen movie format used from 1953 to 1967. Anamorphices allowed the process to project film up to a 2.66:1 Aspect ratio , almost twice as wide as the conventional format of 1.37:1....
 Droopy shorts on his own. A burnt-out Avery left MGM in 1953 to return to the Walter Lantz studio.

After MGM


Avery's return to the Lantz studio did not last long. He directed four cartoons in 1954-1955: the one-shots Crazy Mixed-Up Pup and Shh-h-h-h-h, and I'm Cold and The Legend of Rockabye Point, in which he defined the character of Chilly Willy
Chilly Willy

Chilly Willy is a cartoon character, a diminutive anthropomorphic penguin living in Fairbanks, Alaska, although the species is native only to the southern hemisphere....
 the penguin
Penguin

Penguins are a group of Aquatic animal, flightless bird birds living almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershading dark and white plumage, and their wings have become Flipper ....
. Although The Legend of Rockabye Point and Crazy Mixed-Up Pup were nominated for Academy Awards, Avery left Lantz over a salary dispute, effectively ending his career in theatrical animation.

He turned to animated television commercials, most notably the Raid
Raid (insecticide)

Raid is the brand name of a line of insecticides produced by SC Johnson, first launched in 1956.The initial active ingredient was the first synthetic pyrethroid, allethrin....
 commercials of the 1960s (in which cartoon insects, confronted by the bug killer, screamed "RAID!" and died flamboyantly) "and Frito-Lay
Frito-Lay

Frito-Lay North America is a division of PepsiCo which manufactures, markets and sells a variety of corn chips, potato chips and other snack foods....
's controversial mascot
Mascot

The term mascot ? defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck ? colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or Brand....
, the Frito Bandito
Frito Bandito

The Frito Bandito was the cartoon mascot for Fritos corn chips from 1967 to 1971. The Bandito was created by the Foote, Cone & Belding Agency, and animated by Tex Avery....
. Avery also produced ads for Kool-Aid
Kool-Aid

Kool-Aid is a brand of artificially flavored drink mix owned by the Kraft Foods....
 fruit drinks starring the Warner Bros. characters he had once helped create during his Termite Terrace days.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Avery became increasingly reserved and depressed
Clinical depression

Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by a pervasive depression , low self-esteem, and anhedonia in normally enjoyable activities....
, although he continued to draw respect from his peers. His final employer was Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he wrote gags for Saturday morning cartoons such as the Droopy-esque Kwicky Koala.

On Tuesday, August 26, 1980, Avery died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank, California
Burbank, California

Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The population was 100,316 at the United States Census, 2000.Burbank is located in the eastern region of the San Fernando Valley, north of Downtown Los Angeles, California....
 at age 72. He had been suffering from lung cancer
Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease of uncontrolled cell growth in tissue of the lung. This growth may lead to metastasis, which is the invasion of adjacent tissue and infiltration beyond the lungs....
 for a year. He is buried in Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery
Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)

Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery is part of the Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries chain of Southern California cemeteries. It is located at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, which is on the lower north slope at the far east end of the Santa Monica Mountains range that overlooks North Hol...
.

Legacy

Although Tex Avery did not live to experience the late-1980s renaissance of animation, his work was rediscovered and he began to receive widespread attention and praise by the modern animation and film communities. All of his MGM shorts were released uncensored in a North American MGM/UA laserdisc set, called The Compleat Tex Avery, including the "politically incorrect" Uncle Tom's Cabana and Half-Pint Pygmy (although these were removed from the Region 2 DVD release, now out of print). Several of them were released on VHS, in four volumes of Tex Avery's Screwball Classics, and two Droopy collections, with many gags edited out for television showings left in. King-Size Canary
King-Size Canary

King-Size Canary is an animated cartoon short that debuted in movie theaters in 1947. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by cartoon legend Tex Avery....
 and Little Rural Riding Hood were included on MGM/UA's first non-Tom and Jerry
Tom and Jerry

'Tom and Jerry' is a series of theatrical animated cartoons featuring a cat and a mouse.'Tom and Jerry' may also refer to:* ...
 tape of vintage animated shorts, MGM Cartoon Magic, and One Ham's Family was part of a Christmas collection. Avery's Droopy cartoons are available on the DVD set Tex Avery's Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection. The seven Droopy cartoons produced in CinemaScope were included here in their original widescreen versions, instead of the pan and scan
Pan and scan

Pan and scan is one method of adjusting widescreen film images so that they can be shown within the proportions of a standard definition 4:3 Aspect ratio television screen, often cropping off the sides of the original widescreen image to focus on the composition's most important aspects....
 versions regularly broadcast on television. Also, some of his works could be found on tapes of Warner Bros.' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes shorts, and the same is true of his few Lantz Studio cartoons. His influence is strongly reflected in modern cartoons such as "Roger Rabbit", Ren and Stimpy, Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures

Tiny Toon Adventures is an American animated television series created and produced as a collaborative effort between Steven Spielberg's company Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros....
, Animaniacs
Animaniacs

Steven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as Animaniacs, is an American list of animated television series, distributed by Warner Bros....
, Freakazoid, Tom and Jerry Kids Show
Tom and Jerry Kids Show

Tom & Jerry Kids is an animated television series, featuring Tom and Jerry as kids. The show premeried on Fox Broadcasting Company on September 8, 1990 and continued airing until October 2, 1993....
, Spongebob Squarepants
SpongeBob SquarePants

SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated Television program and media franchise. It is currently one of Nickelodeon and Nicktoons Network's most-watched show....
, and the Genie character in Disney
Walt Disney Pictures

Walt Disney Pictures refers to several different entities associated with The Walt Disney Company:Walt Disney Pictures, the film banner, was found as a designation in 1983, prior to which Disney films since the death of Walt Disney were released under the name of the parent company, then named Walt Disney Productions....
's Aladdin
Aladdin (1992 film)

Aladdin is a Animation produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 25, 1992. The thirty-first animated feature in the List of Disney theatrical animated features, the film is based on the Arab folktale of Aladdin from One Thousand and One Nights....
. In fact, an Averyesque cowboy character bore his name in the otherwise unrelated series The Wacky World of Tex Avery
The Wacky World of Tex Avery

The Wacky World of Tex Avery is a cartoon television show produced by DIC Entertainment in 1997 and 1998.The series was named after Tex Avery, a cartoonist who died in 1980....
. His work has been honored on shows such as The Tex Avery Show
The Tex Avery Show

The Tex Avery Show was an animated showcase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer & Warner Bros. cartoon shorts prominently by animator Tex Avery . The showcase premiered on the Cartoon Network in 1996, and was taken off the air in 2002....
 and Cartoon Alley
Cartoon Alley

Cartoon Alley was an United States television program that aired on Turner Classic Movies every Saturday Morning at 11:30 AM North American Eastern Time Zone....
. His characters (particularly Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny

Bugs Bunny is a fictional rabbit who appears in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animation films produced by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which became Warner Bros....
 and the risqué antics of Red Hot Riding Hood
Red Hot Riding Hood

Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field....
) were referenced in the Jim Carrey
Jim Carrey

James Eugene Carrey , best known as Jim Carrey, is a two-time Golden Globe Award-winning Canadian-American actor and stand-up comedian. He is probably best known for his manic and slapstick performances in comedy films such as Dumb and Dumber, The Mask , Liar Liar, and Bruce Almighty....
 film The Mask
The Mask (film)

The Mask is a 1994 in film action film comedy film, based on a The Mask published by Dark Horse Comics. This film was directed by Chuck Russell, and produced by Dark Horse Entertainment and New Line Cinema, and originally released to movie theatres on July 29, 1994....
. In the mid 1990s, Dark Horse Comics
Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is one of the largest independent United States comic book publishers, behind dominant publishers Marvel Comics and DC Comics....
 released a trio of three-issue miniseries that were openly labelled tributes to Avery's MGM cartoons, Wolf & Red, Droopy, and Screwy Squirrel. It should also be noted that Tex Avery, unlike most Warner Brothers directors, kept many original title frames of his cartoons, several otherwise lost due to Blue Ribbon Reissues
Merrie Melodies

Merrie Melodies is the name of a series of animation distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures between 1931 and 1969. The sister series to Warner's Looney Tunes, Merrie Melodies were originally one-shot musical film cartoon shorts before gradually featuring recurring characters....
, and were recently sold on eBay. In 2008 France issued three stamps honoring Tex Avery for his 100th birthday, depicting Droopy, The girl and The wolf.

Today, the copyrights to all classic color cartoons directed by Avery at Warners and MGM are owned by Turner Entertainment
Turner Entertainment

Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution....
, with Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. is one of the world's largest film producer of film and television.It is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank, California and New York City....
 handling distribution (WB owns the black-and-white cartoons directly). Turner and WB are both units of Time Warner
Time Warner

Time Warner Inc. is the world's third largest media and entertainment Conglomerate by market capitalization , headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City....
. The cartoons he directed at the Lantz studio are owned by their original distributors, Universal Studios
Universal Studios

Universal Studios , a subsidiary of NBC Universal, is one of the six Worldwide major American film studios. Its production studios are located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California....
. A few of Avery's WB shorts are in the public domain
Public domain

File:PD-icon.svgThe public domain is a range of abstract materials?commonly referred to as intellectual property?which are not owned or controlled by anyone....
, but WB and Turner hold the original film elements.

Films directed or co-directed by Tex Avery


Warner Bros.

  • Gold Diggers of '49
    Gold Diggers of '49

    Gold Diggers of '49 is a 1935 Warner Bros. theatrical cartoon short in the Looney Tunes series. This film is the very first cartoon directed by Tex Avery for Warner Brothers., and is the second Warners cartoon to feature the character Porky Pig....
     (1935)
  • The Blow Out
    The Blow Out

    The Blow Out is a 1936 in film Looney Tunes animated short film starring Porky Pig. It was directed by Tex Avery....
     (1936)
  • Plane Dippy (1936)
  • I'd Love to Take Orders from You (1936)
  • Miss Glory (1936)
  • I Love to Singa
    I Love to Singa

    I Love to Singa is both the title of a song written by Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg and a later Merrie Melodies animation short subject based on that song....
     (1936)
  • Porky the Rain Maker (1936)
  • The Village Smithy (1936)
  • Milk and Money
    Milk and Money (cartoon)

    Milk and Honey is a 1936 Looney Tunes animated short film directed by Tex Avery.External links...
     (1936)
  • Don't Look Now
    Don't Look Now (cartoon)

    Don't Look Now is a 1936 Merrie Melodies animated short film directed by Tex Avery. It portrays Valentine's Day. Cupid is making people fall in love, while Satan is doing everything possible to undermine the relationships....
     (1936)
  • Porky the Wrestler (1937)
  • Picador Porky (1937)
  • I Only Have Eyes for You
    I Only Have Eyes for You (cartoon)

    I Only Have Eyes for You is a 1937 Looney Tunes animated short film directed by Tex Avery.External links...
     (1937)
  • Porky's Duck Hunt
    Porky's Duck Hunt

    Porky's Duck Hunt is an animated short film produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, directed by Tex Avery, and released on April 17, 1937 by Warner Bros....
     (1937)
  • Uncle Tom's Bungalow
    Uncle Tom's Bungalow

    Uncle Tom's Bungalow is a Merrie Melodies animation cartoon directed by Tex Avery, and released to theatres on July 12, 1937 by Warner Bros.....
     (1937)
  • Ain't We Got Fun
    Ain't We Got Fun (cartoon)

    SynopsisAin't We Got Fun is a 1937 Merrie Melodies cartoon short, directed by Tex Avery and based on the Ain't We Got Fun? of that name....
     (1937)
  • Daffy Duck & Egghead (1938)
  • Egghead Rides Again
    Egghead Rides Again

    Egghead Rides Again is a 1937 in film Merrie Melodies Warner Bros. film directed by Tex Avery....
     (1937)
  • A Sunbonnet Blue (1937)
  • Porky's Garden (1937)
  • I Wanna Be a Sailor (1937)
  • The Sneezing Weasel (1938)
  • Little Red Walking Hood
    Little Red Walking Hood

    Little Red Walking Hood is a Merrie Melodies cartoon short, released in 1937 by Warner Bros. Directed by Tex Avery.The cartoon features the basic plot of Little Red Riding Hood, with a few twists and oddball Tex Avery-like gags, such as Red displaying a Katharine Hepburn persona, or Grandma ordering a case of gin, while the wolf waits i...
     (1937)
  • The Penguin Parade (1938)
  • Isle of Pingo Pongo (1938)
  • A Feud There Was
    A Feud There Was

    A Feud There Was was a 1938 Warner Bros. cartoon short in the Merrie Melodies series, directed by Tex Avery and written by Melvin Millar, and notable for being the first cartoon in which the name Elmer Fudd was used....
     (1938)
  • Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas
    Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas

    Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas was a cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series directed by Tex Avery and written by Rich Hogan, and released by Warner Bros....
     (1938)
  • Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938)
  • Cinderella Meets Fella (1938)
  • Hamateur Night (1938)
  • The Mice Will Play (1938)
  • A Day at the Zoo
    A Day at the Zoo

    A Day at the Zoo is a 1939 Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It was directed by Tex Avery, with musical direction by Carl Stalling....
     (1939)
  • Thugs with Dirty Mugs
    Thugs with Dirty Mugs

    Thugs with Dirty Mugs is a 1939 in film Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series....
     (1939)
  • Believe It or Else (1939)
  • Dangerous Dan McFoo
    Dangerous Dan McFoo

    Dangerous Dan McFoo is a 1939 Merrie Melodies/Vitaphone animated short directed by Tex Avery, produced by Leon Schlesinger, written by Rich Hogan and based on a poem by Robert W....
     (1939)
  • Detouring America (1939)
  • Land of the Midnight Fun
    Land of the Midnight Fun

    Land of the Midnight Fun is a Merrie Melodies cartoon directed in 1939 by the famous Fred Avery, better known as Tex Avery. Robert C. Bruce's well-known voice narrates this cartoon and Melvin Millar wrote the story....
     (1939)
  • Fresh Fish
    Fresh fish

    In food preparation, curing refers to various preservation and flavoring processes, especially of meat or fish, by the addition of a combination of salt, sugar and nitrate and/or nitrite....
     (1939)
  • Screwball Football (1939)
  • The Early Worm Gets the Bird (1940)
  • Cross Country Detours (1940)
  • The Bear's Tale (1940)
  • A Gander at Mother Goose (1940)
  • Circus Today (1940)
  • A Wild Hare
    A Wild Hare

    A Wild Hare is a Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies animated short film. It was produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, directed by Tex Avery, and written by Rich Hogan....
     (1940)
  • Ceiling Hero (1940)
  • Wacky Wild Life (1940)
  • Of Fox and Hounds
    Of Fox and Hounds

    'Of Fox and Hounds' is an 8-minute 1940 in film Tex Avery film which introduced Willoughby the Dog.The film focuses on a sly fox, George and a dimwitted hound, Willoughby, which he often tricks into jumping off cliffs, amongst other things....
     (1940)
  • Holiday Highlights (1940)
  • The Crackpot Quail (1941)
  • Haunted Mouse (1941)
  • Tortoise Beats Hare
    Tortoise Beats Hare

    Tortoise Beats Hare is a 1941 Merrie Melodies animated short directed by Tex Avery. The short stars Bugs Bunny and, in his first appearance, Cecil Turtle....
     (1941)
  • Hollywood Steps Out
    Hollywood steps out

    Hollywood Steps Out is a 1941 short Looney Tunes cartoon by Warner Brothers, directed by Tex Avery. The cartoon features caricatures of Hollywood celebrities from the 1930s and early 1940s....
     (1941)
  • Porky's Preview (1941)
  • The Heckling Hare
    The Heckling Hare

    The Heckling Hare is a Merrie Melodies cartoon, released on July 12, 1941 and featuring Bugs Bunny and a dopey dog named Willoughby the Dog....
     (1941)
  • Aviation Vacation
    Aviation Vacation

    Aviation Vacation is a 1941 in film Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It was directed by Tex Avery, story by Bob Monahan, musical direction by Carl Stalling....
     (1941)
  • All This and Rabbit Stew
    All This and Rabbit Stew

    All This and Rabbit Stew is a one-reel animated cartoon short subject in the Merrie Melodies series, produced in Technicolor and released to theatres on September 20, 1941 by Warner Bros....
     (1941)
  • The Bug Parade (1941)
  • The Cagey Canary (1941)
  • Aloha Hooey (1942)
  • Crazy Cruise
    Crazy Cruise

    Crazy Cruise is a 1942 in film Warner Bros. cartoon in the Merrie Melodies series. It was directed by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, whose names do not appear on the surviving print of the cartoon....
     (1942)


Paramount

  • Speaking of Animals Down on the Farm (1941)
  • Speaking of Animals Down in a Pet Shop (1941)
  • Speaking of Animals Down in the Zoo (1941)

MGM

  • Blitz Wolf
    Blitz Wolf

    Blitz Wolf is an early anti-German World War II Adolf Hitler-parodying cartoon produced in 1942 in film by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby....
     (1942)
  • The Early Bird Dood It! (1942)
  • Dumb-Hounded (1943)
  • Red Hot Riding Hood
    Red Hot Riding Hood

    Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released on May 8, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994 it was voted #7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field....
     (1943)
  • Who Killed Who?
    Who Killed Who?

    Who Killed Who? is a 1943 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio animated short directed by Tex Avery for MGM. The cartoon is a parody of whodunit stories and employs many clich?s of the genre for humor....
     (1943)
  • One Ham's Family (1943)
  • What's Buzzin' Buzzard? (1943)
  • Screwball Squirrel (1944)
  • Batty Baseball (1944)
  • Happy-Go-Nutty (1944)
  • Big Heel-Watha (1944)
  • The Screwy Truant (1945)
  • The Shooting of Dan McGoo
    The Shooting Of Dan McGoo

    The Shooting of Dan McGoo is a cartoon directed by Tex Avery. It starred Paul Frees as the Wolf. Both Avery and Bill Thompson voiced the lead character Droopy....
     (1945)
  • Jerky Turkey (1945)
  • Swing Shift Cinderella
    Swing Shift Cinderella

    Swing Shift Cinderella is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released in 1945 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It is in the same vein as Red Hot Riding Hood....
     (1945)
  • Wild and Woolfy
    Wild And Woolfy

    Wild and Woolfy is a cartoon which was one of six cartoons in which Droopy was paired with a wolf. and It was one of two cartoons where Bill Thompson did not portray droopy in any part of the cartoon....
     (1945)
  • Lonesome Lenny (1946)
  • The Hick Chick (1946)
  • Northwest Hounded Police
    Northwest Hounded Police

    Northwest Hounded Police is a cartoon starring a prototypical dog resembling Droopy and Tex Avery's wolf. This cartoon revoles the wolf on the run from Droopy, who is trailing the wolf in order to capture him....
     (1946)
  • Henpecked Hoboes (1946)
  • Hound Hunters (1947)
  • Red Hot Rangers (1947)
  • Uncle Tom's Cabaña (1947)
  • Slap Happy Lion
    Slap Happy Lion

    Slap Happy Lion is a 1947 in film cartoon directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby. It is about the tragic downfall of a slap-happy lion from a mighty king of the beasts who terrorized Jungle Big-Shot No....
     (1947)
  • King-Size Canary
    King-Size Canary

    King-Size Canary is an animated cartoon short that debuted in movie theaters in 1947. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and directed by cartoon legend Tex Avery....
     (1947)
  • What Price Fleadom (1948)
  • Little 'Tinker (1948)
  • Half-Pint Pygmy (1948)
  • Lucky Ducky (1948)
  • The Cat that Hated People
    The Cat That Hated People

    The Cat That Hated People is a 1948 in film cartoon directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby. The cat's voice was supplied by Paul Frees; incidental music was directed by Scott Bradley....
     (1948)
  • Bad Luck Blackie
    Bad Luck Blackie

    Bad Luck Blackie is a 1949 animated cartoon produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The Tex Avery-directed short was voted the fifteenth-best cartoon of all-time in a 1994 poll of one-thousand animation industry professionals, as referenced in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons....
     (1949)
  • Señor Droopy (1949)
  • The House of Tomorrow
    The House of Tomorrow (cartoon)

    The House of Tomorrow is a 1949 animated theatrical short directed by Tex Avery. It was part of a series of cartoons Avery did "exploring" technology of the future which included: The Car of Tomorrow , The Farm of Tomorrow, and The TV of Tomorrow....
      (1949)
  • Doggone Tired (1949)
  • Wags to Riches (1949)
  • Little Rural Riding Hood (1949)
  • Out-Foxed (1949)
  • The Counterfeit Cat (1949)
  • Ventriloquist Cat (1950)
  • The Cuckoo Clock (1950)
  • Garden Gopher (1950)
  • The Chump Champ (1950)
  • The Peachy Cobbler (1950)
  • Cock-a-Doodle Dog (1951)
  • Daredevil Droopy (1951)
  • Droopy's Good Deed (1951)
  • Symphony in Slang
    Symphony in Slang

    "Symphony in Slang" is a 1951 cartoon short directed by Tex Avery and released by MGM. Minimalist and abstract in style , it tells the story of a man John Brown who finds himself at the Pearly Gates explaining the story of his life to a bewildered Saint Peter and Noah Webster using contemporary slang....
     (1951)
  • Car of Tomorrow (1951)
  • Droopy's Double Trouble (1951)
  • Magical Maestro
    Magical Maestro

    Magical Maestro is a 1952 animated short film directed by Tex Avery and produced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. It tells the story of Poochini, a canine opera singer who spurns a magician....
     (1952)
  • One Cab's Family (1952)
  • Rock-a-Bye Bear (1952)
  • Little Johnny Jet (1953)
  • T.V. Of Tomorrow (1953)
  • The Three Little Pups (1953)
  • Drag-a-Long Droopy (1954)
  • Billy Boy
    Billy Boy

    Billy Boy is a traditional folk song and nursery rhyme found in the United States.LyricsOne variant of the lyrics goes:...
     (1954)
  • Homesteader Droopy (1954)
  • The Farm of Tomorrow (1954)
  • The Flea Circus (1954)
  • Dixieland Droopy
    Dixieland Droopy

    Dixieland Droopy is a 1954 animated short subject in the Droopy Dog series, directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer....
     (1954)
  • Field and Scream (1955)
  • The First Bad Man
    The First Bad Man

    The First Bad Man is an United States animated cartoon directed by Tex Avery, and features narration by singing cowboy Tex Ritter. It was released by MGM on September 30, 1955....
     (1955)
  • Deputy Droopy (1955)
  • Cellbound (1955)
  • Millionaire Droopy (1955)
  • Cat's Meow
    Cat's meow

    Cat's meow may refer to:*Meow - an onomatopoeia for the voiced Cat communication ----* Cat's MEOW Sylvania Northview's Senior Production...
     (1957)


Walter Lantz

  • Crazy Mixed Up Pup (1954)
  • I'm Cold (1954)
  • The Legend of Rockabye Point
    The Legend of Rockabye Point

    The Legend of Rockabye Point is a 1955 in film Chilly Willy cartoon directed by Tex Avery and produced by Walter Lantz. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Animated Short Film....
     (1955)
  • Sh-h-h-h-h-h (1955)


Further reading


  • Adamson, Joe (1975). Tex Avery: King of Cartoons. New York: De Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80248-1.
  • Barrier, Michael (1999). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516729-5.
  • Benayoun, Robert (1988). Le mystère Tex Avery. Paris: Editions du Seuil. ISBN 2-02-009870-9.
  • Canemaker, John
    John Canemaker

    John Canemaker is an Academy Awards-winning independent animator, animation historian, author, teacher and lecturer. In 1980, he began teaching and developing the animation program at New York University, Tisch School of the Arts', Kanbar Institute of Film and Television Department....
     (1996).     Tex Avery: The MGM Years, 1942-1955. Atlanta: Turner Press. ISBN 1-57036-291-2.
  • Morris, Gary (Sept 1998). . Bright Lights Film Journal.


External links


  • at Keyframe - the Animation Resource
  • , a laserdisc
    Laserdisc

    The Laserdisc is an obsolete home video disc format, and was the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially marketed as Discovision in 1978, the technology was licensed and sold as Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, 'Laservision, 'Disco-Vision, 'DiscoVision, and MCA DiscoVision...
     collection of Avery's entire series of MGM cartoons (published in 1993)