Bob Clampett

His father was born in Nenagh, County Tipperary, Ireland in 1882, and immigrated to the United States with his parents at age two in 1884.

Clampett showed art skills by the age of five.

From the beginning, he was intrigued with and influenced by Douglas Fairbanks, Lon Chaney, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, and began making film short-subjects in his garage when he was 12.

Living in Hollywood as a young boy, he and his mother Joan lived next door to Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sydney Chaplin.

Clampett also recalled watching his father play handball at the Los Angeles Athletic Club with another of the great silent comedians, Harold Lloyd.

From his teens on, Clampett showed an interest in animation.

He had made hand puppets as a child and, before adolescence, completed what animation historian Milt Gray describes as "a sort of prototype, a kind of nondescript dinosaur sock puppet that later evolved into Cecil."

In high school, Clampett drew a full-page comic about the nocturnal adventures of a cat, later published in color in a Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times.

King Features took note and offered Clampett a "cartoonist's contract" beginning a $75 a week after high school.

King Features allowed him to work in their Los Angeles art department on Saturdays and vacations during high school.

King Features occasionally printed his cartoons for encouragement, and paid his way through Otis Art Institute, where he learned to paint in oils and to sculpt.

Robert Emerson Clampett Sr. (May 8, 1913 – May 2, 1984) was an American animator, director, producer and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros. as well as the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil.

He was born and raised not far from Hollywood and, early in life, showed an interest in animation and puppetry.

Clampett was born on May 8, 1913 in San Diego, California to Robert Caleb Clampett and Mildred Joan Merrifield.

After dropping out of high school in 1931, he joined the team at Harman-Ising Productions and began working on the studio's newest short subjects, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.

Clampett attended Glendale High School and Hoover High School in Glendale, California, but left Hoover a few months short of graduating in 1931.

He found a job at a doll factory owned by his aunt, Charlotte Clark.

Clark was looking for an appealing item to sell and Clampett suggested Mickey Mouse, whose popularity was growing.

Unable to find a drawing of the character anywhere, Clampett took his sketchpad to the movie theater and came out with several sketches.

Clark was concerned with copyright, so they drove to the Disney studio.

Walt and Roy Disney were delighted, and they set up a business not far from the Disney studio.

Clampett recalled his short time working for Disney: "Walt Disney himself sometimes came over in an old car to pick up the dolls; he would give them out to visitors to the studio and at sales meetings. I helped him load the dolls in the car. One time his car, loaded with Mickeys, wouldn't start, and I pushed while Walt steered, until it caught, and he took off."

Clampett was, in his words, so "enchanted" by the new medium of sound cartoons that he tried to join Disney as an animator.

While Disney wanted to hire Clampett, they ultimately turned him down due to them having had enough animators at that time, so Clampett instead joined Harman-Ising Studios in 1931 for ten dollars a week.

Leon Schlesinger viewed one of Clampett's 16mm films and was impressed, offering him an assistant position at the studio.

His first job was animating secondary characters in the first Merrie Melodie, Lady, Play Your Mandolin! (1931).

The same year, Clampett began attending story meetings after submitting an idea eventually used for Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!.

The two series were produced at Harman-Ising until mid-1933 when they split into Leon Schlesinger Productions.

In his first years at the studio, Clampett mostly worked for Friz Freleng, under whose guidance Clampett grew into an able animator.

By the time he joined Harman-Ising, Clampett was only 17 years old.

By 1934, Schlesinger was in a bit of a crisis trying to find a well-known cartoon character.

Clampett was promoted to a directorial position in 1937.

During his 15 years at the studio, he directed 84 cartoons later deemed classic, and designed some of the studio's most famous characters, including Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Tweety.

Among his most acclaimed films are Porky in Wackyland (1938) and The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946).

He left Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1946 and turned his attention to television, creating the puppet show Time for Beany in 1949.

A later animated version of the series, Beany and Cecil, was initially broadcast on ABC in 1962 and rerun until 1967.

It is considered the first fully creator-driven television series and carried the byline "a Bob Clampett Cartoon".

In his later years, Clampett toured college campuses and animation festivals as a lecturer on the history of animation.

His Warner cartoons have seen renewed praise in decades since for their surrealistic qualities, energetic and outrageous animation, and irreverent, wordplay-laden humor.

Animation historian Jerry Beck lauded Clampett for "putting the word 'looney' in Looney Tunes."