30 Facts About Friz Freleng

Isadore "Friz" Freleng, credited as I Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, director, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros.

The senior director at Warners' Termite Terrace studio, Freleng directed more cartoons than any other director in the studio, and is the most honored of the Warner directors, having won five Academy Awards and three Emmy Awards.

Friz Freleng held out until January 1927, when he finally moved to California and joined the Walt Disney studio.

Friz Freleng worked alongside other former Kansas City animators, including Iwerks, Harman, Carman Maxwell, and Rudolph Ising.

Friz Freleng said in an interview with Michael Barrier that Walt had shown patience and remorse in letters prior to joining him, but did not show that attitude after he joined Disney and instead Disney became abusive and harassed him.

In 1928, Friz Freleng left the studio, due to Disney saying he "forfeited his bonus" along with comments on his animation mistakes.

Friz Freleng moved back to Kansas to work at his old job at the United Film Ad Service.

Friz Freleng soon teamed up with Harman and Ising to create their own studio.

Friz Freleng was very unhappy living in New York and made the best of it until another opportunity opened for him.

At first, Friz Freleng was reluctant to return to California when Harman-Ising asked him to work on the series.

At the insistence of his sister Jean, Friz Freleng soon moved back to California to work on Looney Tunes.

Friz Freleng directed the largest number of cartoons on the Censored Eleven, a group of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons originally produced and released by Warner Bros.

Friz Freleng had always felt that way in his cartoons, especially with Speedy.

In September 1937, Friz Freleng left Schlesinger after accepting an increase in salary to direct for the new Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio headed by Fred Quimby.

Friz Freleng served as a director on The Captain and the Kids, an animated series adapted from the comic strip, The Katzenjammer Kids.

In November 1938, Friz Freleng became a "junior director" under Hugh Harman but quit after 6 months in April 1939.

Friz Freleng continued to produce modernized versions of the musical comedies he animated in his early career, such as Three Little Bops and Pizzicato Pussycat.

Friz Freleng won four Oscars during his time at Warner Bros.

Friz Freleng's cartoon, Show Biz Bugs, with Daffy Duck vying with Bugs Bunny for theatre audience appreciation, was arguably a template for the successful format of The Bugs Bunny Show that premiered on television in the autumn of 1960.

Further, Freleng directed the cartoons with the erudite and ever-so-polite Goofy Gophers encountering the relentless wheels of human industry, them being I Gopher You and Lumber Jerks, and he directed three cartoons extolling the virtues of free-market capitalism: By Word of Mouse, Heir-Conditioned and Yankee Dood It, all three of which involved Sylvester.

Friz Freleng directed all three of the vintage Warner Brothers cartoons in which a drinking of Dr Jekyll's potion induces a series of monstrous transformations: Dr Jerkyl's Hide, Hyde and Hare and Hyde and Go Tweet.

Friz Freleng was occasionally the subject of in-jokes in Warner cartoons.

Friz Freleng was somewhat of a musical composer and a classically trained violinist who timed his cartoons on musical bar sheets.

Friz Freleng was one of a very few directors at Warner Bros.

Every cartoon Friz Freleng directed from the late 1930s to 1963 was made with his creative musical technique.

The Pink Panther cartoon character became so popular that United Artists, distributors of The Pink Panther, had Friz Freleng produce a short cartoon starring the character, The Pink Phink.

Friz Freleng later served as an executive producer on three 1980s Looney Tunes compilation features, The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales, and Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island, which linked classic shorts with new animated sequences.

In 1986, Friz Freleng stepped down and gave his position at Warner Bros.

On May 26,1995, Friz Freleng died of natural causes in Los Angeles, aged 89.

Friz Freleng is portrayed by Taylor Gray in the film Walt Before Mickey.