Tex Avery is considered the most important influence on Hollywood studio cartoons after Walt Disney. The career of this legendary director, who created Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Droopy, among others, spanned fifty years and took him to most of the major cartoon studios, including Walter Lantz, Warner Bros., MGM, and Hanna-Barbera. His formative years were at Warner Bros., where, in the mid-1930s, his innovative directorial spark dazzled and inspired colleagues such as Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Frank Tashlin, all of whom went on to become industry stars themselves. Avery had a long tenure at MGM's cartoon unit where his high-octane, uninhibited, joyously cartoon-y ideas flowered into some of the greatest (and funniest) animated film shorts ever made. Avery's body of work during the Golden Era of the Hollywood cartoon is a creative legacy that continues to impact contemporary directors of animation and live action, in feature films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Mask, as well as in television. Although warmly admired as a film genius by colleagues in the industry and adored by the international cartoon cognoscenti, Avery never shared in the tremendous expansion of the animation industry into television or feature films in a studio of his own, nor did he own the licensing/merchandising rights to the cartoon characters he created and brought to vital life. Original storyboards, character sketches, and animation cells highlight the career of this important artist.
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