Freleng, Isadore

▪ 1996

      ("FRIZ"), U.S. animator (b. Aug. 21, 1906, Kansas City, Mo.—d. May 26, 1995, Los Angeles, Calif.), was a pioneering producer and director of more than 300 cartoons, most of them for Warner Brothers (later Warner Bros. Inc.), and gave life to such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester, Tweety Pie, Porky Pig, and Yosemite Sam, a mustachioed, gun-slinging, raspy-voiced creation that he modeled after himself. Freleng, who joined the company as head animator in 1930 and drew the first Warner cartoon, Sinkin' in the Bathtub, won four Academy Awards during his more than 30-year tenure with the studio. After Warner closed its animation department in 1963, he created the Pink Panther and garnered his fifth Academy Award for The Pink Phink (1964), the premier cartoon of that series. He also helped form DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, which made animated television and theatrical shorts. During the 1980s Freleng directed television specials for Warner Bros. and helped produce compilation features.

* * *