Friz Freleng
Picture this, you are a librarian at a public library in Kansas City in the US State of Missouri and one day in late 1926 or early 1927, a short, red-haired man comes to the counter with a book that he would like to borrow. He has come to rent out a book called Animated Cartoons by E.G. Lutz and you recognise it almost immediately because some time ago, a young Midwestern farm boy who was now a cartoonist named Walt Disney had also borrowed this book too. Apparently, this time the book is to be borrowed based on a recommendation by one of Walt's buddies according to this man who will be joining Walt at his new studio in California. The name of this redhead? Isadore Freleng but within many years in the animation industry, he would become known as Friz Freleng. Freleng was born in Kansas City to a Polish Jewish immigrant and a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant and grew up within the city where he graduated from Westport High School. He frist worked at the United Film Ad Service where he started his animation career alongside Ub Iwerks and Hugh Harman. Iwerks was also friends with Walt Disney who also started his career in Kansas City before moving to California where He set up with now world famous studio. It was Walt who invited Friz to California and Harman who recommended the book to Freleng to help improve his animation skills.
Unfortunately, things were not singing helpful birds and rainbows at Walt's new studio in California, as Walt and Friz would clash if the project wasn't up to either men's standards. Both men had terrible tempers but Walt made sure not to be open about his on hos own terms. In fact, the chairs that Walt had at the studio for the animators were so hard that Friz ended developing a boil just from sitting on one and he ended up being fired when taking a day off to go to the cinema on a bus after being sighted by Walt Disney himself. Afterwards, Freleng worked with other animation studios as well as returning to the Film Ad Co. in Kansas City, but it was through the encouragement of his sister Jean and the efforts by Harman and Isling that Friz would return to California. This time working for Leon Schlesinger's animation studio at Warner Brothers. In fact, Friz ended up saving the series of shorts Leon was been putting out from ending prematurely by reworking ones that were rejected into a coherent and marketable cartoon. What was this series that was almost killed off by a once unsatisfied Warner Bros head, Jack Warner called? Looney Tunes! In 1935, Friz would create the series' newest star, a stuttering pig called Porky Pig who appeared in the short, I Haven't Got A Hat. At Schlesinger's studio that was nicknamed Termite Terrace, Friz Freleng's unit produced shorts that were consistent in high-quality while Friz himself was the unit's director and tough taskmaster.
For a short while, Friz Freleng left Warner Brothers for another studio, but was unamused with the productions that were made there, and a few short years later, he returned back to Termite Terrace.
However by the mid 1940s, Friz had a new problem and that he found that Elmer was more of a victim for Bugs rather than a bully. Sure, Elmer had a gun as he was a hunter but the character’s soft personality was off putting to Friz and some of his fellow animators so he created a new character who some have said (including his daughter) might have well been based on himself. This new character debuted in Hare Trigger when the short was released on 5th May 1945 and the character was called Yosemite Sam. He was a cowboy with a short stature, a fiery temper and a red moustache like Friz, his creator, and he would appear in several shorts directed by Friz for the next 20 years. In fact, he was only really used by Friz and his presence spawned many similar but distinct characters in the Looney Tunes franchise that haven’t reached up to the same hype as the personification of a lit stick of dynamite. Best of all, Sam was angrier and tougher can Elmer could ever be! Interestingly, while Friz was known to have a short temper, it was different at home where his daughter, Hope, has said that he was a loving, caring father and husband. Other Looney Tunes characters that Friz created alongside Yosemite Sam and Porky Pig include Clyde Bunny and Sylvester the cat.
In 1963, Warner Bros. Cartoons closed, leading Friz Freleng to work at Hanna-Barbera Productions. He rented the same space from Warners and formed DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, producing cartoons until 1966. The studio's signature achievement was The Pink Panther, which won the 1965 Academy Award for Best Short Subject. Other original cartoon series followed, including The Inspector, The Ant and the Aardvark, Tijuana Toads, The Dogfather, Roland and Rattfink, and Crazylegs Crane. The studio also contributed special effects to Star Wars and moved operations to the San Fernando Valley in 1967. By 1980, they sold DePatie–Freleng to Marvel Comics, renaming it Marvel Productions. Friz would also work on three Looney Tunes compilation features in the 1980s which featured old shorts connected with new animation. He would step down from his position of executive producer in 1986 and his then secretary Kathleen Helppie-Shipley took over. In 1994, ayear before his death, Friz Freleng was honoured with the first Lifetime Achievement of Excellence in Animation award by the International Family Film Festival. It was later renamed in his honour. Following his death in May 1995 of natural causes at the aged of 89, Friz Freleng was buried in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery and his grave marker features an extra plaque with an engraving of dancing Looney Tunes characters. Taylor Gray portrayed Friz in the 2015 film Walt Before Mickey.