Robert Balser

Robert Edward "Bob" Balser (March 25, 1927 – January 4, 2016) was an American animator and animation director. Balser, together with co-director Jack Stokes, are best known as the animation directors for the 1968 film, Yellow Submarine, which was inspired by the music of the Beatles. He also directed the animated "Den" sequence of the 1981 film, Heavy Metal.

Robert Balser was born on March 25, 1927 in Rochester, New York. He moved to Los Angeles with his parents, where he attended high school and enrolled in classes at the Chouinard Art Institute. He served in the United States Navy's Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) Office of Research and Inventions in New York City from 1945 to 1946 during the eve of World War II.

Following the war, Balser, using the G.I. Bill, studied at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he majored in advertising art and earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1950. During his senior year at UCLA, Balser signed up for his final required course, an animation class taught by Bill Shull, an animator for the Walt Disney Company, which sparked his interest in a career in animation. He decided to take additional animation classes and created three films as part of his course work: Old King Cole, Richard Corey, and I Like to See It Lap the Miles. His three films were later released by the theater arts department of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

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