Isadore "Friz" Freleng, animator of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and a host of other lovable, idiosyncratic cartoon characters, died Friday, Warner Bros. said. He was 89.
Freleng died at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center. No cause of death was released.During his 30-year reign at Warner Bros., Freleng gave life to Sylvester and Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales and Yosemite Sam. He went on to create the Pink Panther after Warner closed its internal animation department in 1963.
In all, the self-taught artist who specialized in frenetic action worked on more than 300 cartoons.
Freleng won Academy Awards for four of his Warner Bros. cartoons - 1947's "Tweety Pie," 1955's "Speedy Gonzalez," 1957's "Birds Anonymous" and 1958's "Knighty Knight Bugs." He won a fifth Oscar for "The Pink Phink," starring the Pink Panther. He also won three Emmys.
Of all the animated zanies he helped conjure up, he once admitted to serving as the model for gun-slinging, brazen Yosemite Sam.
"I have the same temperament," Freleng told The Associated Press. "I'm small, and I used to have a red mustache."
Freleng left his hometown of Kansas City for Hollywood in the 1920s and went to work for Walt Disney. After several months, he left to work on the "Krazy Kat" cartoon series, then joined Warner Bros. in 1930.
He became head animator for the studio's new "Looney Tunes" short film series and drew the very first Warner cartoon, "Sinkin' in the Bathtub."
In 1933, Freleng was made a director and oversaw Porky Pig's debut "Merrie Melodies" cartoon. He went on to work with animators Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Robert McKimson and Tex Avery.
"Friz was a great man, who really put Warner Bros. animation together. He was the guiding light who made it all worthwhile," Jones said.