Bill Littlejohn
| Bill Littlejohn | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Charles Littlejohn January 27, 1914 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | September 17, 2010 (aged 96) Malibu, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Animator, union organizer |
| Years active | 1934–2001 |
William Charles "Bill" Littlejohn (January 27, 1914 – September 17, 2010) was an American animator and union organizer. Littlejohn worked on both animated shorts and features from the 1930s through to the 1990s. His notable works include the Tom and Jerry shorts, the Peanuts television specials, the Oscar-winning short, "The Hole" (1962), and the Oscar-nominated "A Doonesbury Special" (1977). He has been inducted into the Cartoon Hall of Fame and received the Winsor McCay Award and lifetime achievement awards from the Annie Awards and the UCLA Film and Television Archive. Director Michael Sporn has called Littlejohn "an animation 'God'."
Littlejohn was also co-founded and served as the first president of the Screen Cartoonists Guild Local #852 in 1938. He led the effort to gain recognition for the union at the major Hollywood animation studios. When Walt Disney refused to negotiate with the union and fired 16 pro-union artists, Littlejohn led the union in the 1941 Disney animators strike. The strike lasted nine weeks and resulted in Disney's recognition of the union, substantial salary increases, a 40-hour work week and screen credits. The Disney strike has been recognized as a watershed moment in the movement to unionize the animation industry.
Littlejohn was also an active advocate for the art of animation. He was a co-founder of ASIFA-Hollywood in 1957 and of the International Tournée of Animation in the mid-1960s. He also served on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors representing short films and animation from 1988 to 2001.
Littlejohn was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1914. His father was an engineer for Pitney Bowes who worked an early combination of the adding machine and typewriter. In either 1931 or 1934 (sources differ on the date), he began working in animation at the Van Beuren Studio in New York. His aunt was a cameraperson there, and he was hired as a cel washer on the original "Tom and Jerry" series (not the Hanna/Barbera series). He recalled: "One of my first jobs was to hand out cels to the inkers. They were so slippery in their tissue separators that when I first was handed a stack, I immediately let them drop all over the floor!" Littlejohn worked his way up within the Van Beuren Studio to inking, assisting and then animating. In a 1985 interview, he recalled: "Fear of starving led me to animation — those were Depression days. I had no art training, but learned animation from a do-it-yourself kit." While at Van Beuren, he worked on "Toonerville Trolley" (1936), "Parrotville" (1934) and two animated Amos and Andy shorts, "The Rasslin' Match" (1934) and "The Lion Tamer" (1934).
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