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Birth/Death
Birth: February 6, 1908 (New York City, NY)?Death: February 22, 1981 (Mission Hills, Los Angeles County, CA)
Occupation/Title
Animation Screenwriter & Storyboard Artist
Bio Summary
Michael (or Mike) Maltese started as an “In-Betweener” at Terrytoons Studio & Fleischer Studios in the early 1930’s. I could not find much research about his early family history at all. In regards to his educational training, no information was found again.
Early Life/Family
Married to Florence Maltese.
Education/Training
Career Outline
– Early 1930s Started as an “In-Betweener” at Terrytoons studio & Fleischer studio. ?- 1937 Hired by Leon Schlesinger Productions as an animator.?- 1939 (August) Transferred to Story Dept. against his will.?- 1941 First screen credit for “The Haunted Mouse (Dir. Tex Avery)?- 1943 Leon Schesinger Productions becomes Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc.?- 1945 Created the cartoon character “Pepe Le Pew”?- 1949 Won Academy Awards with director Chuck Jones for the cartoon “For Scent-imental Reasons” (Best Animated Short) and the animated public health documentary, “So Much For So Little” (Best Documentary Short Subject).?- 1949 Created the Roadrunner & Coyote character with Chuck Jones.?- 1955 Created the cartoon character “Michigan J. Frog” with Chuck Jones.?- 1958-1970 Worked for Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Comments On Style
Influences
Personality
Anecdotes
– Maltese patterned the cartoon character “Yosemite Sam” on Friz Freleng because of his extremely short temper, saying, “Friz was Yosemite Sam”.?- After Maltese’s death in 1981, Bob Clampett organized a tribute to him in a Los Angeles Theater.?- Maltese, along with Bob Clampett, Tedd Pierce, Warren Foster and other animators at Warner Brothers Animation, Inc., all felt very slighted for many years during and after the “golden age” of Warner Bros. cartoons because of Mel Blanc and Chuck Jones, the “geniuses” behind the animation. In many old interviews, both Blanc and Jones continually took credit for the creation of the characters, “forgetting” to remember the collaborating animators who actually created them. Two examples of this are Porky pig, whom Mel Blanc was actually the second voice of, and Tweety Bird, originally created by Friz Freleng.?- Maltese, in an interview with Time magazine, remembered some visitor to the Warner cartoon collective huffing, “Well, for heaven’s sake! Grown men!” when they walked in on the rowdyness of the Animation studio in the 1940s.?- Maltese said that “the threat of the loss of monetary compensation was all the inspiration I need to start being funny”.
Miscellaneous
Burial Site
?San Fernando Mission Cemetery?Mission Hills (Los Angeles County)?Los Angeles County?California, USA?Plot: Section F, Tier 49, Grave 51?His wife, Florence, is buried right next to him. He died in 1981 and she died in 1992.
Filmography
Writer – Filmography
The Haunted Mouse (1941)
The Cat’s Tale (1941)
Porky’s Bear Facts (1941) (story)
The Trial of Mr. Wolf (1941)
Hiawatha’s Rabbit Hunt (1941) (story)
The Heckling Hare (1941) (story)
Sport Chumpions (1941) (story)
Notes to You (1941) (story)?Rhapsody in Rivets (1941)
The Cagey Canary (1941)
Hop, Skip and a Chump (1942)
Aloha Hooey (1942) (story)
Crazy Cruise (1942) (story)
The Wabbit Who Came to Supper (1942) (story)
Horton Hatches the Egg (1942)
Double Chaser (1942)
Foney Fables (1942) (story)
Fresh Hare (1942) (story)
The Hare-Brained Hypnotist (1942) (story)
My Favorite Duck (1942)
The Unbearable Bear (1943)
Jack-Wabbit and the Beanstalk (1943) (story)
Hiss and Make Up (1943)
Fin n’ Catty (1943) _… aka Fin’n Catty (USA: reissue title)
Daffy – The Commando (1943) (story)
Little Red Riding Rabbit (1944) (story)
Meatless Flyday (1944) (story)
The Weakly Reporter (1944) (story)
Slightly Daffy (1944) (uncredited)
From Hand to Mouse (1944)
Stage Door Cartoon (1944) (story)
Herr Meets Hare (1945) (story)
Hare Trigger (1945) (story)
Ain’t That Ducky (1945)
Fresh Airedale (1945)
Peck Up Your Troubles (1945)
Baseball Bugs (1946) (story)
Holiday for Shoestrings (1946)
Hollywood Daffy (1946) (story)
Of Thee I Sting (1946)
Racketeer Rabbit (1946) (story)
Fair and Worm-er (1946)
Rhapsody Rabbit (1946) (story)
Roughly Squeaking (1946)
The Gay Anties (1947)
Scent-imental Over You (1947)
Tweetie Pie (1947) (uncredited)
Rabbit Transit (1947) (story)
A Hare Grows in Manhattan (1947) (story)
Along Came Daffy (1947)
Inki at the Circus (1947)
A Pest in the House (1947) (story)
Little Orphan Airedale (1947)
Slick Hare (1947) (story)?Mouse Wreckers (1948) (story)
A Feather in His Hare (1948) (story)
What’s Brewin’, Bruin? (1948)
Back Alley Oproar (1948)
Rabbit Punch (1948) (story)
Buccaneer Bunny (1948) (story)
Bugs Bunny Rides Again (1948) (story)
Haredevil Hare (1948) (story)
House Hunting Mice (1948)
Daffy Dilly (1948)
Kit for Cat (1948)
My Bunny Lies Over the Sea (1948) (story)
Scaredy Cat (1948)
Awful Orphan (1949) (story)
Mississippi Hare (1949) (story)
The Bee-Deviled Bruin (1949) (story)
Long-Haired Hare (1949) (story)
Often an Orphan (1949) (story)
Fast and Furry-ous (1949) (story)
Frigid Hare (1949) (story)
For Scent-imental Reasons (1949) (story)
Bear Feat (1949) (story)
Rabbit Hood (1949) (story)
The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950) (story)
Homeless Hare (1950) (story)
The Hypo-Chondri-Cat (1950) (story)
8 Ball Bunny (1950) (story)
Dog Gone South (1950)
The Ducksters (1950) (story)
Caveman Inki (1950)
Rabbit of Seville (1950) (story)
Two’s a Crowd (1950) (story)
Bunny Hugged (1951) (story)
Scent-imental Romeo (1951) (story)
A Hound for Trouble (1951) (story)
Rabbit Fire (1951) (story)
Chow Hound (1951) (story)
The Wearing of the Grin (1951) (story)
Cheese Chasers (1951) (story)
A Bear for Punishment (1951) (story)
Drip-Along Daffy (1951) (story)
Operation: Rabbit (1952) (story)
Feed the Kitty (1952) (story)
Little Beau Pepé (1952) (story)
Water, Water Every Hare (1952) (story)
Beep, Beep (1952) (story)
The Hasty Hare (1952) (story)
Going! Going! Gosh! (1952) (story)
Mouse-Warming (1952) (story)
Rabbit Seasoning (1952) (story)
Terrier-Stricken (1952) (story)
From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1953) (story)
Don’t Give Up the Sheep (1953) (story)
Forward March Hare (1953) (story)
Kiss Me Cat (1953) (story)
Duck Amuck (1953) (story)
Much Ado About Nutting (1953) (story)
Wild Over You (1953) (story)
Duck Dodgers in the 241/2th Century (1953) (story)
Bully for Bugs (1953) (story)
Zipping Along (1953) (story)
Duck! Rabbit, Duck! (1953) (story)
Punch Trunk (1953) (story)
Feline Frame-Up (1954) (story)
A Horse’s Tale (1954)?No Barking (1954) (story)
The Cats Bah (1954) (story)
Claws for Alarm (1954) (story)
Hay Rube (1954)
Bewitched Bunny (1954) (story)
Stop! Look! and Hasten! (1954) (story)
Pig in a Pickle (1954) (story) _… aka Piggy That Stayed Home (USA)
Real Gone Woody (1954) (story)
Lumber Jack-Rabbit (1954) (story)
My Little Duckaroo (1954) (story)
Sheep Ahoy (1954) (story)
Baby Buggy Bunny (1954) (story)?Helter Shelter (1955)
Beanstalk Bunny (1955) (story)
Witch Crafty (1955)
The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955) (story) _… aka Legend of Rock-A-Bye Point (USA: video box title) _… aka The Rock-a-Bye Legend (USA: reissue title)
Ready.. Set.. Zoom! (1955) (story)
Private Eye Pooch (1955)
Past Perfumance (1955) (story)
Rabbit Rampage (1955) (story)
Double or Mutton (1955) (story)
Jumpin’ Jupiter (1955) (story)
Flea for Two (1955)
Guided Muscle (1955) (story)
One Froggy Evening (1955) (story)
90 Day Wondering (1956)
Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z (1956) (story)
Rocket-bye Baby (1956) (story)
Deduce, You Say (1956) (story)
There They Go-Go-Go! (1956) (story)
To Hare Is Human (1956) (story)
Scrambled Aches (1957) (story)
Ali Baba Bunny (1957) (story)
Go Fly a Kit (1957) (story)
Boyhood Daze (1957) (story)
Fox-Terror (1957) (story)
Steal Wool (1957) (story)
What’s Opera, Doc? (1957) (story)
Zoom and Bored (1957) (story)
Touché and Go (1957) (story)
Rabbit Romeo (1957) (story)
Robin Hood Daffy (1958) (story)
Hare-Way to the Stars (1958) (story)
Whoa, Be-Gone! (1958) (story)
To Itch His Own (1958) (story)
Weasel While You Work (1958) (story)
“Pixie & Dixie” (1958) TV Series (writer)
“The Huckleberry Hound Show” (1958) TV Series (writer)
Hook, Line and Stinker (1958) (story)
Hip Hip-Hurry! (1958) (story)
Cat Feud (1958) (story)
Baton Bunny (1959) (story)
Hare-Abian Nights (1959) (story)
Hot-Rod and Reel! (1959) (story)
Really Scent (1959) (story)
Here Today, Gone Tamale (1959) (story)
“Quick Draw McGraw” (1959) TV Series
Wild About Hurry (1959) (story)
A Witch’s Tangled Hare (1959) (story)
Unnatural History (1959) (story)
Horse Hare (1960) (story)
Goldimouse and the Three Cats (1960) (story)
Person to Bunny (1960) (story)
Who Scent You? (1960) (story)
Ready, Woolen and Able (1960) (story)
“The Flintstones” (1960) TV Series (writer)
Trip for Tat (1960) (story)
High Note (1960) (story)
“The Yogi Bear Show” (1961) TV Series (writer)
The Mouse on 57th Street (1961) (story)
Adventures of the Road-Runner (1962)
Pent-House Mouse (1963) (story)
The Unshrinkable Jerry Mouse (1964) (story)
Snowbody Loves Me (1964) (story)
Much Ado About Mousing (1964) (story)
Is There a Doctor in the Mouse? (1964) (story)
The Cat Above and the Mouse Below (1964) (story)
The Year of the Mouse (1965) (story) _… aka Tom Thump
Tom-ic Energy (1965) (story)
I’m Just Wild About Jerry (1965) (story)
“The Hillbilly Bears” (1965) TV Series (writer)
Duel Personality (1965) (story)
The Cat’s Me-Ouch (1965) (story)
Ah, Sweet Mouse-Story of Life (1965) (story)
“The Secret Squirrel Show” (1965) TV Series (writer)
“The Atom Ant Show” (1965) TV Series (writer)
Love Me, Love My Mouse (1966) (story)
“Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles” (1966) TV Series (“Impossibles” stories)
Cat and Dupli-cat (1967) (story)
“Wacky Races” (1968) TV Series (writer)
“The Perils of Penelope Pitstop” (1969) TV Series (writer)
“The Harlem Globetrotters” (1970) TV Series (story) (as Mike Maltese) _… aka The Go-Go Globetrotters (USA: rerun title)
The Great American Chase (1979) _… aka The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (USA: video title)
Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 241/2th Century (1980) (TV) (written by) (as Mike Maltese) ?Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters (1988)??Actor – Filmography?
You Ought to Be in Pictures (1940) (uncredited) …. Studio Guard
We, the Animals – Squeak! (1941) (uncredited) …. Leader Mouse
The Ducktators (1942) (voice) (uncredited) …. Mussolini Duck
Tortoise Wins by a Hare (1943) (uncredited) …. Various Rabbit Thugs
The Aristo-Cat (1943) (voice) (uncredited) …. Hubie
Wackiki Wabbit (1943) (voice) (uncredited) …. Fat Castaway
A Feather in His Hare (1948) (uncredited) …. Indian
A Hound for Trouble (1951) (voice) (uncredited) …. Customer
Little Beau Pepé (1952) (voice) (uncredited) …. Foreign Legion Singer?
?Composer – Filmography
Drip-Along Daffy (1951) (song “The Flower of Gower Gulch”) (uncredited)
Little Beau Pepé (1952) (song “Le Regimente”) (uncredited)
One Froggy Evening (1955) (co-composer “The Michigan Rag”) (uncredited)?Nelly’s Folly (1961) (song “The Flower of Gower Gulch”) (uncredited) ?
Honors
Academy Award for Best Animated Short “Scent-imental Reasons” 1949 ?Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject “So Much For So Little” 1949
Annie Award: Winsor McCay Award 1976
Related Links
Bibliographic References
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