Academy Award-winning animator Chuck Jones, who drew such beloved cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, has died. He was 89.
Jones worked on more than 300 animated films in a career that spanned more than 60 years, winning two Oscars as a director and receiving an honorary Oscar in 1996 for lifetime achievement.
Working at Warner Bros, he helped bring to life some of the studio's most recognisable characters.
In addition to Bugs and Daffy, he worked on the fast-moving, beep-beeping Road Runner and his hapless pursuer, Wile E Coyote. He also drew Pepe le Pew, the romantic-minded skunk with the French accent.
Jones also produced, directed and wrote the screenplay for the animated television classic Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Born in 1916 in Spokane, Washington, Jones moved to Hollywood with his family, finding work there as a child extra in Mac Sennett comedies.
After graduating from Chouinard Art Institute (now the California Institute of Arts), he began making a living drawing pencil portraits for a dollar apiece on Olvera Street, a historic Los Angeles marketplace.
He landed his first job as an animation cell washer in 1932, going to work for legendary Disney animator Ubbe Iwerks.
A few years later, he became an animator at the Leon Schlesinger Studio, which was later sold to Warner Bros.
PA