Walt Kelly
| Walt Kelly | |
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| Born | Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. August 25, 1913 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | October 18, 1973 (aged 60) Woodland Hills, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse(s) | Helen DeLacey (divorced), Stephanie Waggony (widowed), Margaret Selby Daley |
| Children | Kathleen, Peter, Carolyn, Stephen |
Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. (August 25, 1913 – October 18, 1973), commonly known as Walt Kelly, was an American animator and cartoonist, best known for the comic strip Pogo. He began his animation career in 1936 at Walt Disney Studios, contributing to Pinocchio, Fantasia, and Dumbo. In 1941 Kelly transferred at the age of 28 to work at Dell Comics, where he created Pogo, which eventually became his platform for political and philosophical commentary.
Kelly was born of Irish-American heritage in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Walter Crawford Kelly, Sr. and Genevieve Kelly (née MacAnnula). When he was two years old, the family moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut. After graduating from Warren Harding High School in 1930, Kelly worked at odd jobs until he was hired as a crime reporter on the Bridgeport Post. He also took up cartooning and illustrated a biography of fellow Bridgeport native P. T. Barnum. Kelly was extremely proud of his journalism pedigree and considered himself a newspaper man as well as a cartoonist.
Kelly became close friends with fellow cartoonists Milton Caniff and Al Capp, and the three occasionally referred to each other in their strips.
Relocating to Southern California, he found a job at Walt Disney Productions as a storyboard artist and gag man on Donald Duck cartoons and other shorts, requesting a switch to the animation department in 1939. Starting over as an animator, Kelly became an assistant to noted Walt Disney animator Fred Moore and became close friends with Moore and Ward Kimball, one of Disney's Nine Old Men. Kelly and Kimball were so close that Kimball named his daughter Kelly Kimball in tribute.
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