39 Facts About Chuck Jones

Charles Martin Jones was an American animator, painter, voice actor and filmmaker, best known for his work with Warner Bros.

Chuck Jones started his career in 1933 alongside Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, and Robert McKimson at the Leon Schlesinger Production's Termite Terrace studio, the studio that made Warner Brothers cartoons, where they created and developed the Looney Tunes characters.

Chuck Jones later started his own studio, Chuck Jones Enterprises, where he directed and produced the film adaptation of Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth.

Two Warner Brothers cartoons that Chuck Jones directed, For Scent-imental Reasons and So Much for So Little, won Academy Awards for Best Animated Short Film, though at this time it was customary for the statuette to be given to a cartoon's producer, not the director.

Chuck Jones did not receive a Best Animated Short Film Oscar of his own until winning for the The Dot and the Line in 1966.

Charles Martin Chuck Jones was born on September 21,1912, in Spokane, Washington, to Mabel McQuiddy and Charles Adams Chuck Jones.

Chuck Jones recounted that his father would start every new business venture by purchasing new stationery and new pencils with the company name on them.

Chuck Jones recounted years later that this pronouncement came as a great relief to him, as he was well past the 200,000 mark, having used up all that stationery.

Chuck Jones joined Leon Schlesinger Productions, the independent studio that produced Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies for Warner Bros.

Chuck Jones worked alongside Clampett as an animator and an uncredited co-director before becoming a main director himself in 1938 when Frank Tashlin left the studio, a position that was initially offered to animator Robert McKimson.

Chuck Jones initially struggled in with his directorial style in his formative years.

Unlike the other directors in the studio, Chuck Jones wanted to make cartoons that would rival the quality and tone to that of ones made by Walt Disney Productions.

Chuck Jones began to change of directorial style starting with the 1942 short The Draft Horse, but the cartoon that was generally considered his true turning point was The Dover Boys later that year.

Chuck Jones was actively involved in efforts to unionize the staff of Leon Schlesinger Studios.

Chuck Jones was responsible for recruiting animators, layout men, and background people.

Chuck Jones's insulting manner had a unifying effect on the staff.

Chuck Jones directed such shorts as The Weakly Reporter, a 1944 short that related to shortages and rationing on the home front.

Furthermore, Chuck Jones was not given any directorial assignments but was instead assigned to assists Kimball on the film Sleeping Beauty, which at the time was going through production delays.

Cartoons reopening, Chuck Jones was rehired and reunited with most of his unit.

Chuck Jones moonlighted to work on the film since he had an exclusive contract with Warner Bros.

Chuck Jones directed the classic animated short The Bear That Wasn't.

Chuck Jones co-directed 1969's The Pogo Special Birthday Special, based on the Walt Kelly comic strip, and voiced the characters of Porky Pine and Bun Rab.

Chuck Jones produced a Saturday morning children's TV series for the American Broadcasting Company called The Curiosity Shop in 1971.

From 1977 to 1978, Chuck Jones wrote and drew the newspaper comic strip Crawford for the Chicago Tribune-NY News Syndicate.

Chuck Jones married Marian Dern, the writer of the comic strip Rick O'Shay in 1981.

On December 11,1975, shortly after the release of Bugs Bunny: Superstar, which prominently featured Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones wrote a letter to Tex Avery, accusing Clampett of taking credit for ideas that were not his, and for characters created by other directors.

Chuck Jones was the creative consultant and character designer for two Raggedy Ann animated specials and the first Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas special A Chipmunk Christmas.

Chuck Jones directed animated sequences for various features such as a lengthy sequence in the film Stay Tuned and a shorter one seen at the start of the Robin Williams vehicle Mrs Doubtfire.

Also during the 1980s and 1990s, Chuck Jones served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute.

Chuck Jones's final animation project was a series of 13 shorts starring a timber wolf character he had designed in the 1960s named Thomas Timber Wolf.

From 2001 until 2004, Cartoon Network aired The Chuck Jones Show which features shorts directed by him.

Chuck Jones died of congestive heart failure on February 22,2002, at his home in Corona del Mar, Newport Beach at the age of 89.

Chuck Jones was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.

Also, the Looney Tunes cartoon Daffy Duck for President, based on the book that Chuck Jones had written and using Chuck Jones's style for the characters, scheduled to be released in 2000, was released in 2004 as part of disc three of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 DVD set.

Chuck Jones was a historical authority as well as a major contributor to the development of animation throughout the 20th century.

In 1990, Chuck Jones received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Chuck Jones received an honorary degree from Oglethorpe University in 1993.

In 1996, Chuck Jones received an Honorary Oscar at the 68th Academy Awards.

Many of Chuck Jones's family welcomed celebrities, animation aficionados and visitors to the new attraction when they opened the attraction in an appropriate and unconventional way.