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Birth/Death

Birth: August 29, 1890 Winnipeg, Manitoba

Death: 7 August 1966 Vancouver, Britsih Columbia

Occupation/Title

Character Designer / Illustrator / Political Cartoonist

Bio Summary

Charlie Thorson led a colorful life of unprecedented accomplishments, working at times on Leon Schlesinger’s Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, to working on Walt Disney’s first feature-length film, Snow White. He is most notable achievement is probably being the designer of the characters Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. He moved around quite a bit, never making a name at any of the many animation studios he was a part of. He was 45 before he got into animation, having been employed as a graphic artist in Winnipeg, Canada for most of his early life.

Early Life/Family

Charlie Thorson was born in 1890 and began doing oddjobs around Winnipeg, adding to the time he spent among his high-living artist circle of friends. His parents, Stefan Thordarson and Sigridur Thorarinsdottir, were Icelandic immigrants who arrived in Canada in 1887. After establishing themselves, which included changing their last name to Thorson and converting to Presbyterians, they had four sons, the third of which being Charlie. Charlie led a rebellious childhood, full of befriending wild animals, claiming to see the world through their eyes, and he just loved to draw. He traveled a lot as a teenager, getting whatever work he could.

Education/Training

Not much is stated about Charlie’s education and training, giving merit to the notion that he did what a lot of famous artists did and learned as they went, drawing their way there the whole time. His training inevitably was almost all on-the-job, as he lived life as a hobo, jumping from position to position to make ends meet in the looming Great Depression era.

Career Outline

1935: Hired by Disney Studios, worked on Snow White (was left out of the credits due to leaving before the film was finished)?1939: Began work on Gulliver’s Travels?-Moved to Harman-Ising, MGM, and then Warner Bros.?Designed hundreds of characters: including Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, and Twinkle Toes?1947: Wrote and Illustrated Keeko?1952: Wrote and iluustrated Chee-Chee and Keeko

Comments On Style

Thorson’s work is precise, but gentle. His politcal cartoons were accurate, but generous. Most famously known for designing Bugs Bunny, his character design was valued as being highly appealing, and he was very successful in his concepts. His characters were generally charmingly cute, and his rendering gave them a unique “human-ness” that viewers could connect with.

Influences

While working on Snow White, he told friends that his design of the heroine was based on an old girlfriend he had had in his teen years. Little Hiawatha was modeled after his niece, Ellen. Often he would sketch children out as animals they requested. Thorson used many figures from his life as inspiration for characters he designed.

Personality

Thorson’s personality is reflected in his artwork, high-spirited and joking. He was never mean-spirited in his cartoons, but he was honest.

Anecdotes

The most famous, the creation of Bugs Bunny. Charlie was asked to design a new rabbit character. Thorson doodled up a standard model sheet of six separate poses and left them on Bugs Hardaway’s desk, waiting for approval. Written on the very bottom of this sheet, was “Bug’s Bunny.” After review, the name seemed to have stuck!

Miscellaneous

Filmography

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?Gulliver’s Travels

Honors

?In 1947 he was made an honorary member of the International Mark Twain Society for “his contributions to literature.”

Related Links

Charlie Thorson:
Character Design In Classic Animation, Animation World Magazine, Issue 2.6, September 1997

Bibliographic References

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.6/2.6pages/2.6walzthorson.htmlhttp://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0012112 ?http://www.themuralsofwinnipeg.com/Mpages/index.php?action=gotomural?ralid=218 ?

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Contributors To This Listing

Jorge Garrido
Dana Pull

To make additions or corrections to this listing, please click on COMMENTS below…??????

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Birth/Death

Birth: May 11, 1883,
Death: March 28, 1942

Occupation/Title

 Disney Storyboard and Visual Development artist.

Bio Summary

Swiss born, animator who began his professional animation career at Barre-Bower studios working on the Mutt & Jeff cartoon series. Eventually he left Barre-Bowers after clashes with his fellow employees. After a decade hiatus from animation he was hired as a story artist at Disney Studios where he laid the groundwork for the visual style Disney adapted for their Feature Films as well as their Shorts Film line, used for decades after Hurter’s death.

Early Life/Family

Albert Hurter Jr. was born in Zurich, Switzerland to Albert Sr. and Maria Hurter. The couple would eventually have two more boys, Hugo born in 1884, and Ernst in 1890. Albert Sr. was employed as a technical drawing teacher at the Berufsschule, a Zurich professional school. He influenced his three boys in an art education resulting in Hugo becoming a technical draftsman and Ernst an electrical engineer. However in 1903 Albert Jr. departed Zurich for formal art training in Berlin. At an early age Albert was diagnosed with rheumatic heart disease, a disease that would later treatable by conventional medicine, unfortunately such medicine did not exist during his youth and thus the damage to his heart was irreversible. His condition would eventually claim his life. After seven years of art training Albert Jr. returned home in 1910, two years later his father died at age 60 after which he departed for America where he perused his professional career. Albert Hurter never married and had no children.

Education/Training

Studied architecture in Zurich for three years then in 1903, at age nineteen, he traveled to Berlin for formal art training. Hurter moved to New York in 1912 where he was hired at Barre-Bower studios where he learned animation. In 1918 he abruptly departed the studio for California where he dabbled in design work until 1931 after which he was hired at Walt Disney Studios where he remained till his death.

Career Outline

Began his career working on the groundbreaking series Mutt & Jeff shorts produced by Charles Bowers. He remained with the Barre-Bowers studio until he abruptly left in 1918 over apparent “cultural classes” with his fellow employees. Hurter spent the 20’s scratching by on magazine, furniture and fashion designs. In 1931 Walt Disney Studios, hired Hurter under suggestion of Ted Sears, whom he knew from Barre-Bower. Though by this time Mutt & Jeff animation was no longer industry standard, Walt appointed Hurter to the three-man story department because of his extraordinary ability humanize objects. Hurter established the “Visual Look” of many of Disney’s feature films, some of which were never release during his lifetime, including “Peter Pan” and “Lady and the Tramp.” Hurter brought to the attention of his collages, the influences of many European artist, namely Heinrich Kley and established an artistic style that Disney adapted for many of their Feature Length films. Hurter continued to work a year up till his death. Seven years after his death in 1942 Ted Sears helped publish the book “He Drew As He Pleased – A Sketchbook by Albert Hurter,” which featured over 700 drawings accumulated over the years. In the forward of the book Walt paid tribute to Hurter as “a master creator of fantasy” who possessed “genuine ability as an artist.”

Comments On Style

Hurter had a unique ability of anthropomorphizing animals and inanimate objects. He drew his inspiration from the work of such European artist as Heinrich Kley, Herman Vogel, Gustave Doré, Franz Struck, Honoré Daumier and Wilhelm Busch.

Influences

Heinrich Kley, Herman Vogel, Gustave Doré, Franz Struck, Honoré Daumier and Wilhelm Busch

Personality

Anti-social and withdrawn.

Anecdotes

“When the layout men get the rough [sketch] well built, give it to Albert before the animator gets it. Then before it goes to Sam [Armstrong, head background painter], Albert gets it once more… Albert can make suggestions if they don’t destroy gags. He dresses them up. We take them back and shoot them for the animators. Before final coloring Albert gets them again. That keeps the key of the picture and the picture and the characters.” –David Hand
“A master creator of fantasy.” – Walt Disney.

Miscellaneous

Featured in books: “He Drew As He Pleased” – 1948 Simon & Schuster, “The Art of Walt Disney” – Christopher Finch, 1973 Abrams, “Before the Animation Begins” – John Canemaker, 1996 Hyperion

Filmography

Silly Symphonies (1931-1939) (storyboard artist, character designer, visual development)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) (character designer)
Pinocchio (1940) (character designer, visual development)
Dumbo (1941) (character designer, visual development)
The Reluctant Dragon (1941) (character designer, visual development)
Peter Pan (1953) (pre-production 1939) (character designer, visual development)
Lady and the Tramp (pre-production in 1937) (1955) (character designer)

Honors

Related Links

Bibliographic References

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Contributors To This Listing

John Perez

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Birth/Death

Birth: May 15, 1908 in New York, NY
Death May 6, 2005 in Glendale, CA at his drawing table

Occupation/Title

Animator, Story Artist, Character Designer

Bio Summary

Joe Grant was born in New York City and his family moved to Los Angeles when Joe was still young. His father was a newspaper editor. Grant was hired by the Los Angeles Record to draw cartoons of famous people.

Early Life/Family

Education/Training

Career Outline

Grant started working at Disney in 1933 as an animator on ‘Mickey’s Gala Premiere’ and ‘Who Killed Cock Robin’. He designed the Evil Queen for ‘Snow White’ and eventually became head of the character design department. No design was final until it was given the okay by Grant with a stamp of ‘O.K., J.G.’ . He wrote ‘Dumbo’ with Dick Huemer, did character design for ‘Pinocchio’, was story director on ‘Fantasia’, and selected the music to be used in the film. He also co-wrote the story for ‘Fantasia’s ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Grant and his wife, Jennie, came up with the idea for ‘Lady and the Tramp’ and developed it into production. He also wrote ‘Thru the Mirror’, ‘The Reluctant Dragon’, ‘Der Fuhrer’s Face’, and ‘Saludos Amigos’.

In 1949, he left Disney when the character design department was dissolved. He formed the greeting card company, Castle Ltd, and ran Opechee Designs, a ceramics studio, with Jennie.

He returned to Disney in 1989. He designed Mrs. Potts for ‘Beauty and the Beast’, Abu for ‘Aladdin’, Meeko, Flit, and Grandmother Willow for ‘Pocahontas’, and Cri-Kee for ‘Mulan’. In addition to his contribution to character design, he worked in visual development for the same four films. In 2004, he was nominated for an Academy Award for his short film, ‘Lorenzo’. His talent as a story man showed in films such as ‘Fantasia 2000’ since Grant came up with sequence of the flamingo playing with his yo-yo and set to the finale of ‘Carnival of the Animals’.

Comments On Style

“The drawings I make are not storyboard drawings. They are inspirational drawings. I always like to have an idea in each drawing, so if they look at it they can say that’s a possibility, we can build on that. I think that’s my function, always has been.”

Influences

Vladislav Theodor Benda
Wilhelm Busch
Heinrich Kley

Personality

Grant was described by Eric Goldberg as “…a nonstop flood of creativity and imagination…” He was always putting new ideas on paper and was known to be a charming and witty man. Grant was always excited for new projects and concepts. He was also known for a “B.S. detector”.

Anecdotes

Grant’s Springer Spaniel was the inspiration for Lady of ‘Lady and the Tramp’.

Over seventy of his caricatures are owned by the Smithsonian Museum.

The Evil Queen and her alter-ego were based off a woman who lived across the street from Grant, except her basket was filled with persimmons. Grant hesitated to reveal this information until several decades after the film’s release.

Miscellaneous

Filmography

Filmography

Parade of the Award Nominees (1932) (animator) (uncredited)
Mickey’s Gala Premier (1933) (animator)
Who Killed Cock Robin? (1935) (animator)
Thru the Mirror (1936) (writer)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) (character designer)
Pinocchio (1940) (character designer)
Fantasia (1940) (story director) (uncredited)
The Reluctant Dragon (1941) (story) (segment “Baby Weems”)
Dumbo (1941) (story)
Der Fuehrer’s Face (1942) (written by)
Saludos Amigos (1942) (story)
Make Mine Music (1946) (production supervisor)
Alice in Wonderland (1951) (writer)
Lady and the Tramp (1955) (concept) (uncredited)
“Popeye” (1 episode, 1960)
Beauty and the Beast (1991) (visual development)
The Lion King (1994) (visual development)
The Lion King (1994) (character designer)
Pocahontas (1995) (visual development)
Pocahontas (1995) (story)
Pocahontas (1995) (character designer)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) (visual development)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) (character designer)
Hercules (1997) (visual development)
Mulan (1998) (story)
Fantasia/2000 (1999) (creator: original concept)
Lorenzo (2004) (story)

Honors

Annie Award: Winsor McCay Award 1985
Disney Legend – 1992
Ruben Award – 1996
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards – 2001

Related Links

Design: Reluctant Dragon and Pinocchio Model Sheets

Bibliographic References

Joe Grant’s work on ‘Lorenzo’

Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation
John Canemaker, Before the Animation Begins: The Life and Times of Disney inspirational Sketch Artists
Disney Legends – Joe Grant: http://legends.disney.go.com/legends/detail?key=Joe+GrantThe Legacy of Joe Grant: http://www.jakefriedman.net/writings/092005-grant_1.htmlNot Just Your Average Joe: Disney Legend Joe Grant: http://www.awn.com/mag/issue4.08/4.08pages/lyonsgrant.php3
Joe Grant, 96, Artist and Writer for Disney’s Most Beloved Films, Dies: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/11/movies/11grant.html

Contributors To This Listing

Kaitlin Sullivan

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