Bill Melendez
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Melendez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008)<ref name=NYT/><ref name="BBC">Template:Cite news</ref> was a Mexican-American animator, director, producer, and voice actor. Melendez was known for working on the Peanuts animated specials, as well as providing the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock. Before Peanuts, he previously worked as an animator for Walt Disney Productions, Warner Bros. Cartoons, and UPA.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In a career spanning over 60 years, he won six Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for thirteen more. In addition, he was nominated for an Oscar and five Grammy Awards. The two Peanuts specials, A Charlie Brown Christmas and What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?, which he directed, were each honored with a Peabody Award.
Early life
A native of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, Melendez was educated in American public schools in Douglas, Arizona.<ref name=NYT/> He later attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (which would later become California Institute of the Arts).<ref name=NYT/>
Early animation work (1935–1961)
On completion of his studies, Melendez found his first job at a lumber mill. After watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, he gained employment at Disney in 1938, where he worked as an assistant animator to Hawley Pratt whom he befriended and worked together to developed a naval game with toy ships. He worked on what are now considered classics: Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi and he worked once as an animator for a Donald Duck short, The Flying Jalopy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Following the 1941 Disney strike, Melendez was hired by Leon Schlesinger Productions, later known as Warner Bros. Cartoons, where he served as animator on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. He worked in Bob Clampett's unit, first as an assistant animator for Rod Scribner, and then as a full animator starting with Wagon Heels. After Clampett's departure in 1945, the unit was given to Arthur Davis. When the number of animation units at Warner Bros. was reduced from four to three in 1947,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Melendez along with Emery Hawkins moved to Robert McKimson's unit for some time.
After animating several shorts for McKimson, Melendez was fired by producer Edward Selzer. Afterwards, he moved over to United Productions of America (UPA), where he animated on cartoons such as Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950). Melendez also produced and directed thousands of television commercials, first at UPA, then John Sutherland Productions and Playhouse Pictures.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 1963, Melendez founded his own studio in the basement of his Hollywood home. Bill Melendez Productions is still active and is currently run by his son Steven C. Melendez.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In addition to animation, Melendez was once a faculty member at the University of Southern California's Cinema Arts Department.
Melendez would also be referenced in the 1961 Looney Tunes short The Pied Piper of Guadalupe, where his name was used for a music instructor for Sylvester to learn how to play the flute. At that point, Melendez has been away from Warner Bros. for ten years.
Peanuts franchise (1959–2006)
In 1959, Melendez was hired to do some animated television commercials featuring characters from the comic strip Peanuts for the Ford Motor Company. These animations were seen by documentary producer Lee Mendelson, and Mendelson hired Melendez to do some interstitial animations for a film he was producing about the comic strip entitled A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
Melendez was the only person Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz trusted to turn his popular comic creations into television specials. He and his studio worked on every single television special and direct-to-video film for the Peanuts gang and Melendez directed the majority of them. He provided the vocal effects for Snoopy and Woodstock in every single production, voice acting the characters in the studio by uttering gibberish, and the voices were mechanically sped up at different speeds to represent the two different characters, although some later specials had Snoopy speaking in a clear voice, reflecting how he would be thinking to himself in the comics.
According to an article in The New York Times published shortly after his death, Melendez did not intend to do voice acting for the two characters. "Schulz would not countenance the idea of a beagle uttering English dialogue, Mr. Melendez recited gibberish into a tape recorder, sped it up and put the result on the soundtrack."<ref name=NYT>Template:Cite news</ref> He also directed, did the animation for, and provided voice acting in the first four Peanuts theatrical films, A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), Snoopy Come Home (1972), Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980), as well as the video games Get Ready for School, Charlie Brown! (1995) and Snoopy's Campfire Stories (1996).<ref>"Bill Melendez at Moby Games" Template:Webarchive. Retrieved October 29, 2017.</ref>
The last Peanuts-related production he worked on was He's a Bully, Charlie Brown (2006). Melendez and Lee Mendelson, who also worked on the Peanuts specials, films, and TV shows, formed their own production team and did other animated specials. They were responsible for the first two Garfield animated specials, Here Comes Garfield (1982) and Garfield on the Town (1983), as well as Frosty Returns (1992), the pseudo-sequel to Rankin/Bass' Frosty the Snowman (1969).
National Student Film Institute
During the 1980s and 1990s Melendez served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Death
Melendez died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, on September 2, 2008, at the age of 91.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> No cause of his death was made public, but he had been in declining health after a fall a year earlier.<ref name=NYT/> Melendez was cremated and his ashes were given to his family.
Posthumous return to Peanuts
Archive recordings of his work as Snoopy and Woodstock were used for the film The Peanuts Movie.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This makes him the only member of the film's cast to have been involved in a previous Peanuts project, same for Kristin Chenoweth, who won a Tony Award for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Broadway. Melendez also has archival recordings on the film's game, Snoopy's Grand Adventure.
Melendez Films
{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for clobbered parameters|check|nested=1|template=Infobox company|cat=Template:Main other|name; company_name|logo; company_logo|logo_alt; alt|trade_name; trading_name|former_names; former_name|type; company_type|predecessors; predecessor|successors; successor|foundation; founded|founders; founder|defunct; dissolved|hq_location; location|hq_location_city; location_city|hq_location_country; location_country|num_locations; locations|areas_served; area_served|net_income; profit|net_income_year; profit_year|owners; owner |homepage; website }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox company with unknown parameter "_VALUE_" | ignoreblank=y | alt | area_served | areas_served | assets | assets_year | aum | brands | company_logo | company_name | company_type | defunct | dissolved | divisions | embed | equity | equity_year | fate | footnotes | headquarters | former_name | former_names | foundation | founded | founder | founders | genre | homepage | hq_location | hq_location_city | hq_location_country | incorporated | image | image_alt | image_caption | image_size | image_upright | income_year | industry | ISIN | key_people | location | location_city | location_country | locations | logo | logo_alt | logo_caption | logo_class | logo_size | logo_upright | members | members_year | module | name | native_name | native_name_lang | net_income | net_income_year | num_employees | num_employees_year | num_locations | num_locations_year | operating_income | owner | owners | parent | predecessor | predecessors | production | production_year | products | profit | profit_year | rating | ratio | revenue | revenue_year | romanized_name | services | subsid | subsidiaries | successor | successors | traded_as | trade_name | trading_name | type | website| qid | fetchwikidata | suppressfields | noicon | nocat | demo | categories }} Melendez Films (formerly Bill Melendez Productions and Melendez Features, Inc.) is a film animation studio. It was founded in 1962 by Steven C. Melendez, the son of Bill. The studio produced the ambitious animated feature film Dick Deadeye, based on the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1979 the company produced a one-and-a-half-hour television special based on the C.S. Lewis classic book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the film subsequently won two Emmy Awards for "best animated film" and "script adaptation". Melendez Films has also produced many series for television including "Fred Basset" and "The Perishers", as well as educational mini films like Molly and the Skywalkerz for PBS, which were not rebroadcast for a couple of decades and did not surface on home media until after the 1998 VHS debut.Template:Citation needed
The company continues to create commercials in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece and Sweden as well as the UK and the U.S. working for clients such as Scandinavian Airlines, Schick, British Rail, Colgate, Ferrero, and the British Government.
Mendelson/Melendez Productions
{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for clobbered parameters|check|nested=1|template=Infobox company|cat=Template:Main other|name; company_name|logo; company_logo|logo_alt; alt|trade_name; trading_name|former_names; former_name|type; company_type|predecessors; predecessor|successors; successor|foundation; founded|founders; founder|defunct; dissolved|hq_location; location|hq_location_city; location_city|hq_location_country; location_country|num_locations; locations|areas_served; area_served|net_income; profit|net_income_year; profit_year|owners; owner |homepage; website }}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox company with unknown parameter "_VALUE_" | ignoreblank=y | alt | area_served | areas_served | assets | assets_year | aum | brands | company_logo | company_name | company_type | defunct | dissolved | divisions | embed | equity | equity_year | fate | footnotes | headquarters | former_name | former_names | foundation | founded | founder | founders | genre | homepage | hq_location | hq_location_city | hq_location_country | incorporated | image | image_alt | image_caption | image_size | image_upright | income_year | industry | ISIN | key_people | location | location_city | location_country | locations | logo | logo_alt | logo_caption | logo_class | logo_size | logo_upright | members | members_year | module | name | native_name | native_name_lang | net_income | net_income_year | num_employees | num_employees_year | num_locations | num_locations_year | operating_income | owner | owners | parent | predecessor | predecessors | production | production_year | products | profit | profit_year | rating | ratio | revenue | revenue_year | romanized_name | services | subsid | subsidiaries | successor | successors | traded_as | trade_name | trading_name | type | website| qid | fetchwikidata | suppressfields | noicon | nocat | demo | categories }} Mendelson/Melendez Productions (sometimes credited as Mendelson-Melendez Productions and formerly as Lee Mendelson/Bill Melendez Productions.) was an American animation studio founded in 1965 and was active until 2006. It was mostly famous for its Peanuts animated specials.
Filmography
Films
Television
Video games
| Year | Film | Animator | Producer | Director | Actor | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Get Ready for School, Charlie Brown! | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Snoopy, Woodstock | |
| 1996 | Snoopy's Campfire Stories | Template:Yes | Template:No | Template:Yes | Template:Yes | Snoopy, Woodstock | |
| 2015 | The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy's Grand Adventure | Template:No | Template:No | Template:No | Template:Yes | Snoopy, Woodstock | archival recordings |
References
External links
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- Bill Melendez Productions Inc.
- Bio of Bill Melendez on Chuck Jones site
- Interview of Melendez (August '06)
- Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the gang flowed with good grief from his pen
- The Washington Post: Bill Melendez, 91; Award-Winning 'Peanuts' Animator
- Los Angeles Canyon News: Peanuts" Animator Bill Melendez Dies At Age 91
- Variety Magazine: Animator Bill Melendez dies at 91
- Template:EmmyTVLegends name
- The Independent: Bill Melendez: Animator who worked on Disney classics and adaptations of the 'Peanuts' cartoons
- 1916 births
- 2008 deaths
- American film directors of Mexican descent
- American animated film producers
- American animated film directors
- American comedy film directors
- American television personalities of Mexican descent
- American writers of Mexican descent
- Animal impersonators
- Walt Disney Animation Studios people
- Mexican emigrants to the United States
- People from Hermosillo
- Primetime Emmy Award winners
- USC School of Cinematic Arts faculty
- People from Douglas, Arizona
- Warner Bros. Cartoons people
- Film directors from Arizona