Chuck Jones facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Chuck Jones
Jones in 1978
Born	Charles Martin Jones (1912-09-21)September 21, 1912 Spokane, Washington, U.S.
Died	February 22, 2002(2002-02-22) (aged 89) Newport Beach, California, U.S.
Other names	Charles M. Jones The Father of Contemporary Animation M. Charl Jones
Alma mater	Chouinard Art Institute
Occupation	Animator, voice actor, painter
Years active	1931–2001
Employer	Ub Iwerks Studio (1931–1933) Walter Lantz Productions (1933) Screen Gems (1933) Warner Bros. Cartoons (1933–1962) Sib Tower 12 Productions (1962–1970) Warner Bros. Animation (1976-1997)
Notable work	Looney Tunes Merrie Melodies Tom and Jerry How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Spouse(s)	Dorothy Webster ​ ​ (m. 1935; died 1978)​ Marian Dern ​ (m. 1981)​
Children	1

Charles Martin Jones (born September 21, 1912 – died February 22, 2002), known to most as Chuck Jones, was an amazing American animator, director, and painter. He is famous for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons.

Chuck Jones helped create, write, and direct many classic cartoons. These include shorts starring beloved characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, and Porky Pig. He also worked on Tom and Jerry and the TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.

Chuck Jones: An Animation Legend

Chuck Jones started his career in 1933 at Leon Schlesinger Production's Termite Terrace studio. There, he worked with other talented animators like Tex Avery and Friz Freleng. Together, they developed the famous Looney Tunes characters.

During World War II, Jones directed many Private Snafu cartoons. These were special educational shorts shown to members of the U.S. military. After leaving Warner Bros. in 1962, Jones started his own company, Sib Tower 12 Productions. He then made new Tom and Jerry cartoons and TV shows based on Dr. Seuss's books. These included How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) and Horton Hears a Who! (1970).

Jones won three Academy Awards for his animated short films. In 1996, he received an Honorary Academy Award for his incredible work in animation. Many experts consider his cartoon What's Opera, Doc? (1957) to be one of the greatest cartoons ever made.

Early Life and Artistic Beginnings

Chuck Jones was born on September 21, 1912, in Spokane, Washington. When he was just six months old, his family moved to Los Angeles, California.

Jones often said his artistic talent came from his father. His dad was a businessman who often started new ventures. Each time, he would buy lots of new stationery and pencils. When a business failed, he would give all the unused supplies to his children. This meant Chuck and his siblings always had plenty of paper and pencils to draw with. They drew constantly! Jones later joked that he had drawn "well past the 200,000 mark" of bad drawings, which an art teacher once said you needed to get through before drawing anything good. Many of his siblings also became artists.

While studying art, he worked part-time as a janitor. After finishing at the Chouinard Art Institute, a friend helped him get a job at the Ub Iwerks studio. He started by washing animation cels (clear sheets used for drawing cartoons). Then he moved up to painting, tracing drawings, and finally becoming an "in-betweener." An in-betweener draws the frames between the main drawings made by the lead animators. At Iwerks, he met Dorothy Webster, who became his first wife.

Creating Cartoon Magic at Warner Bros.

In 1933, Jones joined Leon Schlesinger Productions. This studio made the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons for Warner Bros.. By 1935, he became an animator and worked with director Tex Avery. Their team, along with others, worked in a small building they called "Termite Terrace."

Jones became a director himself in 1938. The next year, he created his first major character, Sniffles, a cute mouse. At first, Jones wanted his cartoons to look like the beautiful ones made by Walt Disney Productions. However, his early cartoons were a bit slow and didn't have many jokes. The studio wanted funnier cartoons. Jones improved his style, making cartoons with faster jokes and more exciting animation. One cartoon that showed this change was The Dover Boys (1942).

Jones was also involved in helping the animators at Warner Bros. form a union. This helped them get better working conditions and pay. During this time, he created other characters like Charlie Dog, Hubie and Bertie, and The Three Bears.

Working During World War II

During World War II, Jones worked with famous author Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel). They created the Private Snafu series of educational cartoons for the Army. Jones also directed shorts about rationing and a campaign film for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Famous Characters He Helped Create

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Jones helped create or develop many iconic characters. He helped with Bugs Bunny and created Claude Cat, Marc Antony and Pussyfoot, Michigan J. Frog, Gossamer, and his four most famous creations: Marvin the Martian, Pepé Le Pew, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.

Jones and writer Michael Maltese worked together on many Road Runner cartoons, plus classics like Duck Amuck, One Froggy Evening, and What's Opera, Doc?.

In 1953, Warner Bros. briefly closed its animation studio. During this time, Jones worked for a few months at Walt Disney Productions on the film Sleeping Beauty. When Warner Bros. reopened its animation department, Jones returned.

In the early 1960s, Jones and his wife Dorothy wrote the story for an animated movie called Gay Purr-ee. It was about cats in Paris. Because Jones had an exclusive contract with Warner Bros., he wasn't supposed to work on other films. When Warner Bros. found out, they ended his contract.

New Adventures at MGM

After leaving Warner Bros., Jones and his business partner Les Goldman started a new animation studio called Sib Tower 12 Productions. Many of his old team from Warner Bros. joined him. In 1963, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) hired Jones's studio to make new Tom and Jerry cartoons. They also adapted older Tom and Jerry cartoons for TV, making some changes, like replacing the character of Mammy Two-Shoes.

In 1964, MGM bought Sib Tower 12, renaming it MGM Animation/Visual Arts. Jones's animated short film, The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics, won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1965.

Jones also produced and directed the famous TV special How the Grinch Stole Christmas! in 1966. He continued to work on other TV specials like Horton Hears a Who! (1970). His main focus during this time was directing the movie The Phantom Tollbooth, which came out in 1970.

His Own Studio and Beyond

In 1970, MGM closed its animation division, so Jones started his own studio again, called Chuck Jones Enterprises. He created a children's TV series called The Curiosity Shop in 1971. He also made animated versions of classic books like The Cricket in Times Square (1973) and stories from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, including Mowgli's Brothers and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. During this time, Jones experimented with new character designs that looked a bit more realistic.

Jones in 1976

Return to Warner Bros.

Chuck Jones returned to work with Warner Bros. in 1976. He directed animated TV specials like The Carnival of the Animals with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. He also produced The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979), which was a collection of his best old cartoons mixed with new Road Runner shorts.

From 1977 to 1978, Jones wrote and drew a newspaper comic strip called Crawford. In 1978, his first wife, Dorothy, passed away. He later married Marian Dern in 1981.

Later Years and Lasting Legacy

In the 1980s and 1990s, Jones spent time painting cartoon and parody art, which was sold through galleries by his daughter's company. He also worked as a creative consultant for animated specials like A Chipmunk Christmas. He even made a small appearance in the movie Gremlins (1984) and directed the animated parts for its sequel, Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). Jones also directed animated scenes for other movies like Stay Tuned (1992) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993).

Jones's last Looney Tunes cartoon was From Hare to Eternity (1997), starring Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam. It was dedicated to his friend and fellow animator, Friz Freleng. His final animation project was a series of 13 online shorts about a timber wolf character he created. From 2001 to 2004, Cartoon Network aired The Chuck Jones Show, which featured his classic shorts.

In 1999, he started the non-profit Chuck Jones Center for Creativity in California. This center is like a "gymnasium for the brain" and teaches creative skills, especially to children and seniors. It's still helping people be creative today!

Chuck Jones passed away from heart failure on February 22, 2002, at the age of 89. His ashes were scattered at sea. After he died, Cartoon Network aired a special tribute to him. A Looney Tunes cartoon called Daffy Duck for President, based on a book Jones wrote, was released in 2004.

Awards and Honors

Chuck Jones won many awards for his amazing work:

In 1996, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave Jones an Honorary Academy Award. This was to celebrate his "creation of classic cartoons and cartoon characters whose animated lives have brought joy to our real ones for more than half a century." At the awards show, actor Robin Williams called Jones "The Orson Welles of cartoons." The audience gave Jones a standing ovation. Jones joked in his speech, "I stand guilty before the world of directing over three hundred cartoons in the last fifty or sixty years. Hopefully, this means you've forgiven me."

Jones also received the Golden Plate Award in 1990 and an honorary degree from Oglethorpe University in 1993. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7011 Hollywood Blvd.

Inspiring Creativity Today

On January 12, 2012, an exhibit called The Chuck Jones Experience opened at Circus Circus Las Vegas. It celebrated Jones's life and work. His family, including his widow Marian Jones and daughter Linda Clough, were there to open the attraction. It's a place where people can learn about his amazing contributions to animation.