American animator (1913-1984). Born in
San Diego, Clampett got an early start in
animation when he joined the
Warner Brothers cartoon studio in the early 1930s. He and fellow director
Tex Avery were largely behind Warner Brothers' move from
cute-and-
cuddly Disney-style
cartoons to the more
edgy and
surreal style that we've come to associate with Warners (some historians credit Clampett more than Avery, while others say Avery got the ball rolling -- I think it's clear that they were both
influencing each other, and insisting on crediting one more than the other is just
silly).
Clampett can definitely be credited with creating
Tweety Bird (with an appearance that was supposedly based on one of Clampett's old
baby pictures) and with giving
Daffy Duck his initially
insane personality, with the
little black duck jumping around wildly, hooting "
Woo-Hoo! Woo-Hoo! Woo-Hoo!" and generally acting
zany. He was also behind one of the most
bizarrely surreal cartoons ever: 1938's "
Porky in Wackyland," where
Porky Pig chased the elusive
Dodo through a
Dali-inspired world populated by
rubber bands,
three-headed monsters, and mid-air
elevators. He also directed classics like "
The Daffy Doc," "
Wabbit Twouble," the racist-as-hell"
Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs," "
Corny Concerto," "
What's Cookin', Doc?," "
Falling Hare," "
Russian Rhapsody," "
The Old Grey Hare," "
The Bashful Buzzard," "
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery," and "
Book Revue."
Clampett left Warners in 1946 and worked briefly for Columbia's cartoon department. In 1949, he was the
producer and
director for "
Time for Beany," a TV
puppet show that won multiple awards and garnered a huge audience. During the 1950s, he revived the characters to make an animated series called "
Beany and Cecil."
Clampett was also one of the few animators to save his original animation
artwork, anticipating that they would eventually have
historical,
artistic, and
monetary value.
My favorite bits of
trivia about Clampett: (1) he loved
boating and once saved three men who had gotten into a boating accident. (2) He is sometimes credited with being the first person to introduce the use of
anvils as weapons, in 1942's "
A Tale of Two Kitties."
Clampett died of a
heart attack in
Detroit in 1984.
Research from http://members.aol.com/EOCostello/c.html and the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)