Biography

Born: August 21, 1906, Kansas City, Missouri
Died: May 26, 1995

[WIW]

Friz Freleng was a Kansas City native who had worked with Walt Disney in the early 1920s, but was not called to join Disney's California studio until 1927, when Rollin Hamilton left. There he studied under master animator Ub Iwerks, but after only a few years he left with Harman and Ising to create cartoons for Warner Bros. In fact, it has been said that he had expected to be an equal partner them. His responsibilities at the studio grew until he actually directed a few of the Bosko cartoons. The first one he can remember directing is Bosko in Dutch in 1933. He became a full-time director after Harman and Ising left in mind 1933, and would soon become one of the greatest animation directors of all time. He directed almost 300 cartoons at WB, including some of the best Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Sylvester & Tweety cartoons ever made. Yosemite Sam was modeled after him, fierce temper and all. He left WB briefly in 1937 to work at MGM, who had fired Harman and Ising for a short time, but soon returned. After WB closed its animation department in the 1960s, he teamed with producer David H. DePatie to create DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. This new studio produced a new series of cartoons for WB, and also created the popular Pink Panther series, many of which were directed by Freleng. He also directed many television specials and compilation features for WB in the 1980s. Freleng won five Academy Awards, for Tweetie Pie, Speedy Gonzales, Birds Anonymous, Knighty-Knight Bugs, and The Pink Phink. [WIW, TAF! and OM&M]

For more biographical information on Friz Freleng, refer to his entry in The Warner Bros. Cartoon Companion.

Directing Credits

NOTE: In the following cartoons, it is believed that Friz Freleng performed some, if not all, of the actual directing duties [AoFF]:

Animation Credits

Other Credits