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Selected biographies list edit
Selected biographies: 1-10 edit
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/1
Steve Ross Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator and game designer. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. The series has since grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games. A graduate of the California College of Arts and Craft, Purcell began his career creating comic strips for the college newsletter. He performed freelance work for Marvel Comics and Fishwrap Productions before publishing his first Sam & Max comic in 1987. Purcell was hired by LucasArts as an artist and animator in 1988, working on several titles within the company's adventure games era. Purcell collaborated with Nelvana to create a Sam & Max television series in 1997, and briefly worked as an animator for Industrial Light & Magic after leaving LucasArts. He is currently employed in the story development department at Pixar. His main work for the animation studio has been with the 2006 film Cars and spin-off materials such as shorts and video games. Despite his employment with Pixar, Purcell has continued to work with comic books and came together with Telltale Games in 2005 to bring about new series of Sam & Max video games.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/2
Dan Castellaneta (born October 29, 1957) is an American film, theatre and television actor, comedian, voice artist, singer and television writer. Noted for his long-running role as Homer Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, he also voices many other characters on The Simpsons, including Abraham "Grampa" Simpson, Barney Gumble, Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby and Hans Moleman. Born in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park, Illinois, Castellaneta started taking acting classes at a young age. He would listen to his father's comedy records and do impressions of the artists. He was cast in The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted in 1987. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Castellaneta to voice Homer. His voice for the character started out as a loose impression of Walter Matthau, but later evolved into a more robust voice. The shorts would eventually be spun off into The Simpsons. Castellaneta has won four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for his work on the show as well as an Annie Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in the Field of Animation in 1993.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/3
Alfonso "Al" Williamson (March 21, 1931 – June 12, 2010) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western and science-fiction/fantasy. Born in New York City, he spent much of his early childhood in Bogotá, Colombia before moving back to the United States at the age of 12. In his youth, Williamson developed an interest in comic strips, particularly Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon. He took art classes at Burne Hogarth's Cartoonists and Illustrators School, there befriending future cartoonists Wally Wood and Roy Krenkel, who introduced him to the work of illustrators who had influenced adventure strips. Before long, he was working professionally in the comics industry. His most notable works include his science-fiction/heroic fantasy art for EC Comics in the 1950s, on titles including Weird Science and Weird Fantasy. In the 1960s, he gained recognition for continuing Raymond's illustrative tradition with his work on the Flash Gordon comic-book series, and was a seminal contributor to the Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror comics magazines Creepy and Eerie. Williamson spent most of the 1970s working on his own credited strip, another Raymond creation, Secret Agent X-9. The following decade, he became known for his work adapting Star Wars films to comic books and newspaper strips. From the mid-1980s to 2003, he was primarily active as an inker, mainly on Marvel Comics superhero titles starring such characters as Daredevil, Spider-Man, and Spider-Girl.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/4
Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is an American director of animated and, occasionally, live-action films. As the American animation industry fell into decline during the 1960s and 1970s, Bakshi tried to bring a change in the industry by establishing an alternative to mainstream animation in independent and adult-oriented productions. From 1972 until 1994, he directed nine theatrically-released feature films, writing five of them, and oversaw ten television projects as a director, producer and animator. Beginning his career at the Terrytoons television cartoon studio as a cel polisher, Bakshi was eventually promoted to director. He moved to the animation division of Paramount Pictures in 1967 and started his own studio, Bakshi Productions, in 1968. Through producer Steve Krantz, Bakshi made his debut feature film, Fritz the Cat, released in 1972. It was the first animated film to receive an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, and the most successful independent animated feature of all time.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/5
Lat is a Malaysian cartoonist whose work earned him the honorific title of datuk. He was born on 5 March 1951 in a village in Perak, Malaysia, and started supplementing his family's income at the age of nine by submitting his comics to magazines and newspapers. Four years later, he published his first comic book. In 1970, Lat left school and became a crime reporter while continuing his cartooning sideline. His comic about the Bersunat—a circumcision ceremony all Malaysian boys of the Islamic faith have to undergo—made a great impression on his newspaper's editor-in-chief. As a result, Lat became an editorial cartoonist. As he gained popularity through his cartoons in Malaysia, he published his autobiography in the form of two graphic novels—The Kampung Boy and Town Boy. The Kampung Boy was a huge success and gained him international renown. It is published in various countries around the world in several languages. Lat's cartoons provide an unbiased and humorous insight on the lives and culture of Malaysians, who consider him one of their most trustworthy citizens. His admirers include American cartoonists Sergio Aragonés and Matt Groening.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/6
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. As the co-founder (with his brother Roy O. Disney) of Walt Disney Productions, Disney became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation he co-founded, now known as The Walt Disney Company, today has annual revenues of approximately U.S. $35 billion. Disney is particularly noted for being a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created a number of the world's most famous fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, a character for which Disney himself was the original voice. He has won 26 Academy Awards out of 59 nominations, including a record four in one year, giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual. He also won seven Emmy Awards. He is the namesake for Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the United States, as well as the international resorts in Japan, France, and China. Disney died of lung cancer in Burbank, California, on December 15, 1966.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/7
Georges Prosper Remi (22 May 1907 – 3 March 1983), better known by the pen name Hergé, was a Belgian comics writer and artist. His best known and most substantial work is the 23 completed comic books in The Adventures of Tintin series, which he wrote and illustrated from 1929 until his death in 1983, although he was also responsible for other well known comic book series such as Quick & Flupke (1930–1940) and Jo, Zette and Jocko (1936–1957). Born into a middle-class family in Etterbeek, Brussels, he took a keen interest in Scouting in early life, something that would prove highly influential on his later work. Initially producing illustrations for Belgian Scouting magazines, in 1927 he began working for the conservative newspaper Le XXe Siècle, where he adopted the pen name "Hergé" [ɛʁʒe], based upon the French pronunciation of "RG", his initials reversed. It was here, in 1929, that he began serialising the first of the Adventures of Tintin, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets. The notable qualities of the Tintin stories include their vivid humanism, a realistic feel produced by meticulous and wide ranging research, and Hergé's ligne claire drawing style. Adult readers enjoy the many satirical references to the history and politics of the 20th century. The Blue Lotus, for example, was inspired by the Mukden incident that led to the Chinese-Japanese War of 1934. King Ottokar's Sceptre could be read against the background of Hitler's Anschluss or in the context of the struggle between the Romanian Iron Guard and the King of Romania, Carol II; whilst later albums such as The Calculus Affair depict the Cold War. Hergé has become one of the most famous Belgians worldwide and Tintin is still an international success. Hergé is a prominent national hero in his native country, to the extent where he has been described as the actual "personification of Belgium". The long-awaited Hergé Museum was opened in Louvain-La-Neuve on 2 June 2009. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Christian de Portzamparc, the museum reflects Hergé's huge corpus of work which has, until now, been sitting in studios and bank vaults. His work remains a strong influence on comics, particularly in Europe. He was inducted into the Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2003.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/8
Jean-Claude Mézières (born 23 September 1938) is a French comic strip artist and illustrator. Born and raised in Paris, he was introduced to drawing by his older brother and influenced by comics artists such as Hergé, Andre Franquin and Morris and later by Jijé and Jack Davis. Educated at the Institut des Arts Appliqués, upon graduation he worked as an illustrator for books and magazines as well as in advertising. A lifelong interest in the Wild West led him to travel to the United States in 1965 in search of adventure as a cowboy, an experience that would prove influential on his later work. Returning to France, Mézières teamed up with his childhood friend, Pierre Christin, to create Valérian and Laureline, the popular, long-running science fiction comics series for which he is best known and which has proved to be influential to many science fiction and fantasy films, including Star Wars. Mézières has also worked as a conceptual designer on several motion picture projects – most notably the 1997 Luc Besson film, The Fifth Element – as well as continuing to work as an illustrator for newspapers, magazines and in advertising. He has also taught courses on the production of comics at the University of Paris, Vincennes. Mézières has received international recognition through a number of prestigious awards, most notably the 1984 Grand Prix de la ville d'Angoulême award.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/9
Julie Kavner (born September 7, 1950) is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. Noted for her role as Marge Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons, she also voices other characters for the show, including Patty and Selma Bouvier. Born in Los Angeles, Kavner grew up in Southern California, attending Beverly Hills High School and later San Diego State University. Known for her improvisation and distinctive "honeyed gravel voice," Kavner was cast in her first professional acting role as Brenda Morgenstern in Rhoda in 1974. She received a Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award in 1978 and several more award nominations for playing the character. Following Rhoda, Kavner was cast in The Tracey Ullman Show, which debuted in 1987. The Tracey Ullman Show included a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family. Voices were needed for the shorts, so the producers decided to ask Kavner to voice Marge. The shorts would eventually be spun off into The Simpsons.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/10
Dan Povenmire (b. 1963) is an American television director, writer, producer, storyboard artist, and actor associated with several animated television series, best known as the co-creator of the Disney animated series Phineas and Ferb in which he also voices the show's villain, Heinz Doofenshmirtz. Povenmire grew up in Mobile, Alabama, where he was a talented art student who spent summers outdoors and making movies. Povenmire attended the University of South Alabama before deciding to pursue a film career and transferring to the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Povenmire has been a long-time contributor to the animation business, working on several different animated television series such as The Simpsons, Rocko's Modern Life and SpongeBob SquarePants. He was a longtime director on the prime time series Family Guy, where he was nominated for an Annie Award in 2005. He left the series to create Phineas and Ferb with Jeff "Swampy" Marsh. Povenmire has been nominated for several awards for his work on the show, including a BAFTA, an Annie, and three Emmy Awards.
Selected biographies: 11-15 edit
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/11
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Jeff "Swampy" Marsh (born December 9, 1960) is an American television director, writer, producer, storyboard artist, and actor associated with several animated television series. Marsh was born in Santa Monica, California, where he grew up with a heavily blended family dynamic. Marsh has been and continues to be a driving force behind several animation projects, working for over six seasons on the animated television series The Simpsons. Marsh continued to work on other animated television series, including King of the Hill and Rocko's Modern Life, before moving to England in 1996. While in England, Marsh worked on several animated programs, including Postman Pat and Bounty Hamster, and worked for BKN New Media Ltd. to produce several feature films. After six years living in England, Marsh was asked by his longtime partner Dan Povenmire to help produce Phineas and Ferb in 2007, a concept the two had while working together on Rocko's Modern Life. Marsh accepted and moved back to the United States; the series has since garnered Marsh two Emmy Awards nominations for songwriting.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/12
Steve Jobs (b. 1955, d. 2011) was an American business magnate and inventor. He is co-founder, chairman, and former chief executive officer of Apple Inc. Jobs also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios; he became a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company in 2006, following the acquisition of Pixar by Disney. He was credited in the 1995 film Toy Story as an executive producer. In the late 1970s, Jobs, with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Mike Markkula, and others, designed, developed, and marketed one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. In the early 1980s, Jobs was among the first to see the commercial potential of Xerox PARC's mouse-driven graphical user interface, which led to the creation of the Macintosh. After losing a power struggle with the board of directors in 1985, Jobs resigned from Apple and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets. Apple's subsequent 1996 buyout of NeXT brought Jobs back to the company he co-founded, and he served as its CEO from 1997 until 2011. In 1986, he acquired the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd which was spun off as Pixar Animation Studios. He remained CEO and majority shareholder at 50.1% until its acquisition by The Walt Disney company in 2006. In 2011, Apple announced that Steve Jobs had died at the age of 56.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/13
William Hanna (1910–2001) was an American animator, director, producer, and cartoonist, whose movie and television cartoon characters entertained millions worldwide for much of the twentieth century. Hanna joined the Harman and Ising animation studio in 1930 and steadily gained skill and prominence while working on cartoons such as Captain and the Kids. In 1937, while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hanna met Joseph Barbera. The two men began a collaboration that was at first best known for producing Tom and Jerry and live action films. In 1957, they co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which became the most successful television animation studio in the business, producing programs such as The Flintstones, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, and Yogi Bear. In 1967, Hanna-Barbera was sold to Taft Broadcasting for $12 million, but Hanna and Barbera remained heads of the company until 1991. At that time the studio was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, which in turn was merged with Time Warner, owners of Warner Bros., in 1996; Hanna and Barbera stayed on as advisors. Hanna and Barbera won seven Academy Awards and eight Emmy Awards. Their cartoons have become cultural icons, and Hanna-Barbera's shows have a global audience of over 300 million people.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/14
Joseph Barbera (1911–2006) was an influential American animator, film director, film producer, storyboard artist, and cartoon artist. Born in New York City, after working odd jobs and as a banker, Barbera joined Van Beuren Studios in 1932 and subsequently Terrytoons in 1936. He met his lifelong collaborator William Hanna while working for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1937 and soon began producing animated shorts such as the Tom and Jerry series. In 1957, after MGM dissolved their animation department, they co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which became the most successful television animation studio in the business, producing programs such as The Flintstones, The Huckleberry Hound Show, Top Cat, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Quick Draw McGraw Show, The Smurfs, Wacky Races and Yogi Bear. Hanna and Barbera won seven Academy Awards and eight Emmy Awards. Their shows, which have translations in more than 20 languages, had a global audience in the 1960s of over 300 million people.
Portal:Cartoon/Selected biography/15
Billy West (born April 16, 1950) is an American voice actor. Born in Detroit but raised in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Billy launched his career in the early 1980s performing daily comedic routines on Boston's WBCN. He left the radio station to work on the short-lived revival of Beany and Cecil. He was also a writer and castmember on The Howard Stern Show during the early to mid 1990s, where he gained nationwide fame with his impersonations of Larry Fine and late Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott. West is best known for his voice-work on Ren & Stimpy, Doug and Futurama. His favorite characters are Philip J. Fry (Futurama) and Stimpy (Ren and Stimpy), both of which he originated. West's most notable film work was in Space Jam (1996) providing the voice of both Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. He has provided the same voices for other Looney Tunes films and video games. West has been very outspoken over his displeasure about the influx of movie star actors providing voice-over for films and major shows. As well as a voice artist, West is also a guitarist and singer-songwriter with a band called Billy West and The Grief Counselors.
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