Manuel Perez (animator)

Manuel Perez
Manuel Perez at Warner Bros.
Born	June 17, 1914 Morenci, Arizona, United States
Died	January 18, 1981(1981-01-18) (aged 66) Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California, United States
Occupation	Animator, animation director

Manuel 'Manny' Perez (17 June 1914 – 18 January 1981) was a Mexican American animator and animation director whose career spanned 40 years, from the 1940s to the 1980s, and best known for his work on the Warner Bros. animated shorts, working on such cartoons as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Later in his career he worked on Fritz the Cat and The Lord of the Rings.

Born in 1914 in Morenci in Arizona, in 1917 his family moved to Los Angeles where Perez later attended high school. An athlete, he took part in football, baseball and track. Two years after graduating he was hired by Leon Schlesinger as a trainee animator. On 17 April 1938 he married Connie (née Perez).

'Manny' Perez worked on over 300 cartoons during the 'Golden Age of American Animation', mainly for Warner Bros. Cartoons, for whom he started animating in 1938, but also for Bill Melendez Productions, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and Hanna-Barbera. His first credited cartoon was Porky's Bear Facts (1941). Among the cartoons he animated were those featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweetie and Sylvester, Quick Draw McGraw, the Pink Panther,Charlie Brown, Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner, Doctor Dolittle, The Cat in the Hat, Fritz the Cat and Plastic Man, among many others.