Seymour Kneitel
| Seymour Kneitel | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 16, 1908 New York City, New York USA |
| Died | July 30, 1964 (aged 56) New York City, NY USA |
| Spouse(s) | Ruth Fleischer |
Seymour Kneitel (March 16, 1908 – July 30, 1964) was an American animator. He is best known for his work with Fleischer Studios and its successor, Famous Studios.
Kneitel was born in New York City where he graduated from P.S. 10 in Manhattan and attended the High School of Commerce, taking commercial art courses. He also took evening classes at the National Academy of Design. His father died when Kneitel was about 16, and he needed work to provide support for his mother and sister.
He was able to attend an annex of Commerce HS and work after school and Saturdays for Bray Studios, coloring drawings for Colonel Heeza Liar cartoons. On graduation, he was able to find employment with a small company, L.F. Cornwell, producers of a series called Ebinizer Ebony, which were being made in a now-extinct color process called Kelly Color. He began as an office boy and within a year was one of their three animators. From 1925 to 1927, he worked as an inbetweener at Max Fleischer's "Out of the Inkwell" Studio, and was there for two years when he was offered an opportunity to go to MGM Studios in California as a junior writer.
Kneitel spent six months at MGM writing sub-titles for silent pictures, but was let go when sound arrived. Heading back East he worked briefly for an outfit that produced cartoons based on the popular Joe Jinks comic strips (they never got out of the projection room). In 1928 he worked for six months at Loucks and Norling on industrial films and the Mutt and Jeff series.
In 1928, Kneitel returned to Fleischer Studios as an inbetweener, staying there for fourteen years (1928–1942), He was there only about six months when he became an animator, and a year later became a head animator. During his time there he provided animation for many films, including the Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor series, Talkartoons, Screen Songs (with the famous "bouncing ball"), and the studio's first feature-length film, Gulliver's Travels.
In early 1939, Kneitel suffered a heart attack, and was absent from the studio until late 1941. Kneitel returned just when Fleischer obtained the right to animate Superman. Kneitel wrote several Superman episodes with Isadore (Izzy) Sparber, and directed one short, The Mechanical Monsters (1941).
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