Jones found a job as a seaman on a large schooner, only to see the ship be destroyed by fire. Jones worked briefly as an assistant animator for producers Charles Mintz and Walter Lantz before being rehired by the Iwerks studio, only to be fired again by Iwerks secretary Dorothy Webster, whom he married in 1936.
He progressively moved up the ranks, becoming a cel-painter, cel-inker and assistant animator before being fired by Iwerks. He found work in a commercial art studio but found himself unsuited to the job, and left to take a job as a cel washer at the Ub Iwerks Studio, which at the time was producing "Flip the Frog" cartoons. A high school dropout, Jones enrolled in the Chouinard Art Institute in Pasadena - later known as the California Institute of the Arts - when he was 15 years old, and graduated without feeling secure about his drawing abilities. When he was a child, Jones moved with his family to Los Angeles, where he began appearing as an extra in silent films shot near his home.
21, 1912 in Spokane, WA, Jones was raised by his father, Charles, an unsuccessful businessman who authored the cookbook Fifty Ways to Serve Avocados, and his mother, Mabel. Both unpretentious and self-conscious, Jones' animation mastery during the 1940s and 1950s was unparalleled, and cemented his place as an innovative contrarian.īorn on Sept. in the early 1960s, Jones revived the "Tom and Jerry" cartoons before serving as an independent producer on a number of made-for-television movies. He also was the creator of several characters, including Pepe Le Pew, Wile E. For his part, Jones was responsible for some of the most famous cartoons, directing such popular ones as "Hare-Raising Hare" (1946), "Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century" (1953), "Baby Buggy Bunny" (1954) and "What's Opera, Doc?" (1957), widely considered to be the greatest cartoon ever made. With such iconic characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd, the cartoons were irreverent comedies that broke new ground and rankled future generations, which often sought to censor re-airings on television for violence and racial stereotypes. Alongside Tex Avery, Bob Clampett and Friz Freleng, Jones spearheaded the innovative and wildly popular cartoons that populated the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies worlds.
animation, Chuck Jones forged a legacy as being the creator of some of the funniest and most beautifully designed cartoons ever produced by the Hollywood studio system. As one of the chief animators and directors during the golden age of Warner Bros.