LANTZ, WALTER

born April 27, 1900, New Rochelle, N.Y., U.S. died March 22, 1994, Burbank, Calif. American motion-picture animator, cartoon producer, and creator of the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker. In 1930 Lantz produced the opening scenes of King of Jazz, the first Technicolor cartoon sequence ever screened. Lantz began his career as a newspaper cartoonist but in 1916 experimented with animation. In 1922 he went to work for Bray Studios in New York City, where he collaborated on several series, among them The Katzenjammer Kids, Happy Hooligan, Mutt and Jeff, and Colonel Heeza Liar. He also created and worked on the Pete the Pup and Dinky Doodle series. Lantz went to California in 1927, where he found work as a gagman for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach. In the late '20s he began working for Universal Studios; he continued their Oswald the Rabbit series and developed Andy Panda, Li'l Eight Ball, and Winchester the Tortoise. He did a brief stint with Walt Disney in the 1930s but returned to Universal, where he remained until the early '70s. At Universal he created Woody Woodpecker, giving him a bit part in the 1940 cartoon short Knock, Knock. In 1941 the animated bird got star billing. Lantz's wife, Gracie Lantz (Grace Stafford), became the voice of Woody Woodpecker. During World War II, Lantz produced cartoons that were used as training films by the army and navy. After that he produced educational films, commercial pictures, and the Woody Woodpecker Show for television. In 1979 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him with an honorary award in recognition of his unique animated motion pictures.