Friz Freleng
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2008-07-06T14:04:45Z
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{{Infobox actor
| name = Friz Freleng
| image =
| caption =
| birthname = Isadore Freleng
| birthdate = {{birth date|1906|8|21|mf=y}}
| birthplace = [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]], [[Missouri]]<br>[[United States|U.S.]]
| deathdate = {{death date and age|1995|5|25|1906|8|21|mf=n}}
| deathplace = [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], U.S.
| restingplace = [[Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery]]
| spouse = Lily Freleng
| children = [[Hope Freleng]]<br>[[Sybil Freleng]]
| imdb_id = 0293989
| awards =
}}
'''Isadore "Friz" Freleng''' ([[August 21]], [[1906]]<ref>His exact year of birth varies by source; some give 1905, others 1906. The year chosen here is that of his grave marker. See [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=3822&pt=Isadore%20%27Friz%27%20Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng] at findagrave.com.</ref> – [[May 26]], [[1995]]) was an [[animator]], [[cartoonist]], [[Film director|director]], and [[Film producer|producer]] best known for his work on the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' and ''[[Merrie Melodies]]'' series of [[cartoon]]s from [[Warner Bros.]] He introduced and/or developed several of the studio's biggest stars, including [[Bugs Bunny]], [[Porky Pig]], [[Tweety Bird]], [[Sylvester (Looney Tunes)|Sylvester the cat]], [[Yosemite Sam]] (to whom he was said to bear more than a passing resemblance) and [[Speedy Gonzales]]. The senior director at Warners' [[Termite Terrace]] studio, Freleng is also the most honored of the Warner directors, having won four [[Academy Award for Animated Short Film|Academy Awards]]. After Warners shut down the animation studio in 1963, Freleng and business partner [[David DePatie]] founded [[DePatie-Freleng Enterprises]], which produced cartoons (notably ''[[The Pink Panther Show]]''), feature film title sequences, and [[Saturday morning cartoon]]s through the early 1980s.
==Early career==
Freleng was born in [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]], [[Missouri]], where he began his career in animation at United Film Ad Service. There, he made the acquaintance of fellow animators [[Hugh Harman]] and [[Ub Iwerks]]. In 1923, Iwerks' friend [[Walt Disney]] moved to [[Hollywood]], put out a call for his Kansas City colleagues to join him. Freleng, however, held out until 1927, when he finally moved to California and joined [[Walt Disney Productions|the Disney studio]]. He worked alongside other former Kansas City animators, including Iwerks, Harman, [[Carmen Maxwell]], and [[Rudolph Ising]]. While at Disney's Freleng worked on the [[Alice Comedies]] and [[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]] cartoons for producers [[Margaret Winkler]] and [[Charles Mintz]].
Freleng soon teamed up with Harman and Ising to try to create their own studio. The trio produced a pilot film starring a new [[Mickey Mouse]]-like character named [[Bosko]]. Looking at unemployment if the cartoon failed to generate interest, Freleng moved to [[New York City]] to work on Mintz' [[Krazy Kat]] cartoons, all the while still trying to sell the Harman-Ising Bosko picture. The cartoon finally sold to [[Leon Schlesinger]], who soon secured Harman and Ising to star Bosko in the ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' series he was producing for [[Warner Bros.]] Freleng soon moved back to California to work with Harman and Ising once again.
== Freleng as director ==
=== Early Schlesinger cartoons ===
Harman and Ising left Schlesinger's studio over disputes about budgets in 1933. Schlesinger was left with no experienced directors, and therefore lured Freleng away from Harman-Ising to successfully fix cartoons directed by [[Tom Palmer]] which Warner Bros rejected. The young animator became Schlesinger's top director, and he introduced the studio's first true post-Bosko star, [[Porky Pig]], in the 1935 film ''[[I Haven't Got a Hat]]''. The film is notable for being one of the earliest examples of characterization in a cartoon. Porky was a distinctive character, unlike Bosko or his replacement, [[Buddy (Looney Tunes)|Buddy]].
=== MGM ===
In 1937, Freleng left Schlesinger's after accepting an increase in salary to direct for the new [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio]] headed by [[Fred Quimby]]. To Freleng's chagrin, he found he would be working on ''[[The Captain and the Kids]]'', adapted from the popular [[comic strip]] ''[[The Katzenjammer Kids]]''. The series failed to achieve much success, much as Freleng had predicted—though skillfully animated, the characters could not compete with the "[[funny animal]]s" that prevailed at the time.
=== Back with Schlesinger and Warner Bros. ===
Freleng happily returned to Warner Bros. when his contract ended in 1940. One of the first ''Looney Tunes'' directed by Freleng during his second tenure at the studio was ''[[You Ought to Be in Pictures]]'', a short which blended animation with live-action footage of the Warner Bros. studio (and of Schlesinger veterans such as story man [[Michael Maltese]] and even "Leon" himself). The plot, which centers around Porky Pig being tricked by Daffy Duck into terminating his contract with Schlesinger to attempt a career in features, echoes Freleng's experience in moving to MGM.
=== Directorial achievements ===
Schlesinger's hands-off attitude toward his animators allowed Freleng and his fellow directors almost complete creative control and room to experiment with cartoon comedy styles, which allowed the studio to keep pace with the Disney studio's technical superiority. Freleng's style quickly matured, and he became a master of [[comic timing]]. He also introduced or redesigned a number of famous Warner characters, including [[Yosemite Sam]] in 1945, the cat-and-bird duo, [[Sylvester the cat|Sylvester]] and [[Tweety Bird|Tweety]] in 1947, and [[Speedy Gonzales]] in 1955.
Freleng and [[Chuck Jones]] would dominate the Warner Bros. studio in the years after [[World War II]], Freleng largely concentrating on the above mentioned characters and [[Bugs Bunny]]. Nearly all of the Bugs Bunny cartoons pitting the rabbit against Yosemite Sam in various historical time periods were directed by Freleng, plus some of Bugs' cartoons with Elmer Fudd and/or Daffy Duck or with gangsters Rocky and Mugsy.
Freleng also directed cartoons with the Goofy Gophers (most notably those with the polite rodents trying to retrieve their natural property in a processing factory), cartoons with Sylvester being pursued by a pair of dogs, Spike and Chester, several of the cartoons involving a drunken stork, a number of cartoons in which insects act in military unison to battle a human character, cartoons with characters Daffy Duck or Yosemite Sam marrying for money, and three cartoons, with Bugs Bunny, Sylvester, Tweety, that spoof "[[The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde]]".
Freleng also continued to produce modernized versions of the musical comedies he animated in his early career, such as ''[[The Three Little Bops]]'' (1957) and ''[[Pizzacato Pussycat]]'' (1955). Freleng won four Oscars during his time at Warner Bros., for the films ''[[Tweetie Pie]]'' (1947), ''[[Speedy Gonzales]]'' (1955), ''[[Knighty Knight Bugs]]'' (1958) and ''[[Birds Anonymous]]'' (1957). And other Freleng cartoons such as ''[[Sandy Claws]]'' (1955), ''[[Mexicali Shmoes]]'' (1959), ''[[Mouse and Garden]]'' (1960), and ''[[The Pied Piper of Guadalupe]]'' (1961) were Oscar nominees.
=== DePatie-Freleng Enterprises ===
After the Warner studio closed in 1963, Freleng rented the same space from Warners to create cartoons with his now-former boss, [[Film producer|producer]] [[Dave DePatie]] (the final producer hired by Warners to oversee the cartoon division), forming [[DePatie-Freleng Enterprises]]. When Warner Bros decided to reopen their cartoon studio in 1964, they did so in name only; DePatie-Freleng produced the cartoons into 1966.
While much of Freleng's post-Warner work is considered of lesser quality than his earlier achievements, the DePatie-Freleng studio's signature achievement was [[The Pink Panther (character)|The Pink Panther]]. DePatie-Freleng was commissioned to create the opening titles for the 1963 film ''[[The Pink Panther]]'', for which Freleng created a suave, cool cat character. The Pink Panther cartoon character became so popular that [[United Artists]], distributors of ''The Pink Panther'', had Freleng produce a short cartoon starring the character, ''[[The Pink Phink]]'' (1964).
After ''The Pink Phink'' won the 1965 [[Academy Award for Animated Short Film|Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons)]], Freleng and DePatie responded by producing a whole series of Pink Panther cartoons. Other original cartoon series, among them ''[[The Inspector]]'', ''[[The Ant and the Aardvark]]'', and ''[[Hoot Kloot]]'', soon followed. In 1969, ''[[The Pink Panther Show]]'', a Saturday morning anthology program featuring DePatie-Freleng cartoons, debuted on [[National Broadcasting Company|NBC]]. ''The Pink Panther'' and the other original DePatie-Freleng series would remain in production through 1980, with new cartoons produced for simultaneous Saturday morning broadcast and United Artists theatrical release.
DePatie-Freleng is credited with the creation of Frito-Lay's Chester Cheetah, on the Food Network show "Deep Fried Treats Unwrapped"; as well as creating the colored opening title sequence to ''[[I Dream of Jeannie]]''.
By 1967, DePatie and Freleng had moved their operations to the [[San Fernando Valley]]. One of their projects featured [[Bing Crosby]] and his family called, ''[[Goldilocks (TV)|Goldilocks]]'' and had songs by the [[Sherman Brothers]]. At their new facilities they continued to produce new cartoons until 1980, when they sold DePatie-Freleng to [[Marvel Comics]], who renamed it [[Marvel Productions]].
== Later career ==
Freleng later served as an [[executive producer]] on three 1980s ''Looney Tunes'' compilation features, which linked together several of the classic shorts with new animated sequences. The Freleng-produced compilation features were ''[[The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie]]'' (1981), ''[[Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales]]'' (1982), and ''[[Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island]]'' (1983).
Friz Freleng died of natural causes in 1995. He was interred in the [[Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery]] in [[Culver City, California]].
== Notes ==
<references />
{{Refimprove|date=January 2008}}
== External links ==
* {{imdb name|id=0293989|name=Friz Freleng}}
* {{findagrave|3822}}
{{DePatie-Freleng Enterprises}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freleng, Friz}}
[[Category:1906 births]]
[[Category:1995 deaths]]
[[Category:Animated film directors]]
[[Category:American animators]]
[[Category:Jewish American film directors]]
[[Category:People from Kansas City]]
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