Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones was an animator from early on.  His father would bring home pencils and paper from work and Jones would spend hours drawing with them.  He graduated from Chouinard Art Institute and immediately started working in the animation industry.  While he had several low level jobs, he did gain a lot of experience and met his wife Dorothy Webster while at Ub Iwerks Studio.  In 1933, Jones joined Leon Schlesinger Productions, where he was an assistant animator.  In 1935, he became an animator.  At this point he was working for director Tex Avery along with a few other men.  In 1938, Jones became a director and created his first cartoon The Night Watchman.  While at first Jones’ animations were criticized for lacking humor and being too cute, his cartoon The Dover Boys from 1942 was a real breakthrough.  Also in the 1940’s Jones worked with Dr. Suess to create a series of educational short cartoons.  These were called Private Snafu.  The late 1940’s were a big success for Jones.  He created perhaps his most well known characters: Pepe LePew, The RoadRunner, and Wile E Coyote.  The popularity of these cartoons is clear as they still play on reruns on television.  Jone’s worked briefly for Disney when Warner Bros. shut down the animation studio, but was rehired when they opened back up again.  In the 60’s Jones worked with MGM to create the Tom and Jerry cartoons (my childhood favorite).  In 1962, he created his own production company Sib Tower 12 Productions.  In 1965, Jones’ film The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics won the Oscar for best animated short film.  Jones went on to make several movies for television, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cricket in Times Square.  He was quite the accomplished artist.  He died in 2002.