Bill Melendez

Bill Melendez
Born José Cuauhtémoc Meléndez
(1916-11-15)November 15, 1916
Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico
Died September 2, 2008(2008-09-02) (aged 91)
Santa Monica, California, United States
Occupation Animator
Years active 1938–2006
Spouse(s) Helen Melendez
(1940–2008; his death)

José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008)[1] was a Mexican American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Walt Disney Productions (working on four Disney films Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi), Warner Bros. Cartoons, UPA and the Peanuts series. Melendez provided the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock in the latter as well.

Early life

A native of the Mexican city of Hermosillo, Sonora, Melendez was educated in U.S. public schools in Douglas, Arizona. He was a very good student, and later attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (which would later become California Institute of the Arts).

Warner Bros., UPA and commercial animation work

Following the 1941 Disney strike, Bill was hired by Leon Schlesinger to animate in Bob Clampett's unit. After Clampett's departure, Bill moved to the Arthur Davis unit. When the number of animation units at Warner Bros. was reduced from four to three in 1948, Melendez, after being moved to Robert McKimson's unit for a time, moved over to United Productions of America (UPA) where he animated on cartoons such as Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950). Melendez also produced and directed thousands of television commercials, first at UPA, then Playhouse Pictures and John Sutherland Productions.[2] In 1963, Melendez founded his own studio in the basement of his Hollywood home. Bill Melendez Productions is still active and is currently run by his son Steven Melendez.[3] In addition to animation, Melendez was once a faculty member at the University of Southern California's Cinema Arts Department.

Peanuts TV specials, movies and TV shows

Melendez was the only person Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz trusted to turn his popular comic creations into television specials. He and his studio worked on every single television special and direct-to-video film for the Peanuts gang and Melendez directed the majority of them. He even provided the vocal effects for Snoopy and Woodstock in every single production, voice acting the characters in the studio by uttering gibberish, and the voices were mechanically speeded up at different volumes to represent the two different characters. According to a New York Times article shortly after his death, Melendez did not intend to do voice acting for the two characters. "Schulz would not countenance the idea of a beagle uttering English dialogue, Mr. Melendez recited gibberish into a tape recorder, speeded it up and put the result on the soundtrack.“ He also directed, did the animation for, and provided voice acting in the first four Peanuts theatrical films, A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), Snoopy, Come Home (1972), Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980). The last Peanuts-related production he worked on was He's a Bully, Charlie Brown (2006).

Melendez and Lee Mendelson, who also worked on the Peanuts specials, films, and TV shows, formed their own production team and did other animated specials. They were responsible for the first two Garfield animated specials, Here Comes Garfield (1982) and Garfield on the Town (1983), as well as Melendez being responsible for Frosty Returns (1992), the pseudo-sequel to Rankin/Bass' Frosty the Snowman (1969).

Death

On September 2, 2008, Melendez died at his home in Santa Monica at the age of 91. He had been in declining health after a fall a year earlier.[4] Mendelez was cremated and his ashes given to his family.

Posthumous return to Peanuts

Archive recordings of his work as Snoopy and Woodstock were utilized for the film The Peanuts Movie.[5] This makes him the only member of the film's cast to have been involved in a previous Peanuts project, save for Kristin Chenoweth, who won a Tony Award for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Broadway.[6]

Related companies

References

  1. ↑ "Peanuts' animator Melendez dies". BBC. September 4, 2008. Archived from the original on September 5, 2008. Retrieved September 4, 2008.
  2. ↑ Solomon, Charles (September 4, 2008). "Animator of 'Peanuts' TV specials and voice of Snoopy". The Los Angeles Times.
  3. ↑ "Bill Melendez Prod. Inc.". billmelendez.tv.
  4. ↑ Fox, Margalit (September 4, 2008). "Bill Melendez, 91, 'Peanuts' Animator, Dies". The New York Times.
  5. ↑ Russ Fischer. "New ‘Peanuts’ Movie First Look: Charlie Brown and Snoopy Head Back to the Big Screen". Slashfilm.
  6. ↑ Chenoweth Awards at IMDb, accessed January 4th, 2016

External links

"Bill Melendez". Find a Grave. Retrieved August 11, 2010. 

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