Hawley Pratt
Born(1911-06-09)June 9, 1911
Seattle, Washington
U.S.
DiedMarch 4, 1999(1999-03-04) (aged 87)
Thousand Oaks, California
U.S.
Years active1933–1990
Spouse
Cecelia Pratt
​
​
(m. 1933; died 1990)​
[1]

Hawley B. Pratt (June 9, 1911 – March 4, 1999) was an American film director, animator, designer and illustrator. He is best known for his work for Warner Bros. Cartoons and as the right-hand man of director Friz Freleng as a layout artist and later as a director. Pratt also worked for Walt Disney Studios, Filmation, and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises where he co-created The Pink Panther.

Life and career

Born in Seattle and raised in the Bronx by his widowed mother Mabel,[2] Pratt graduated from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He became an assistant animator then full-animator at Walt Disney Studios in 1933, especially he worked on The Nutcracker Suite sequence for Fantasia where he animated the spinning flowers dancing to “Dance of the Reed-Flutes”. He later left to joined Warner Bros. Cartoons, along with fellow animators Bill Melendez, Cornett Wood, and Jack Bradbury who also departed to the same studio after the Disney animators' strike in 1941.[1] At Warners, he served as an assistant animator to Richard Bickenbach before taking over the role as a layout artist providing background layouts and character poses since Sylvester’s debut cartoon, Life with Feathers (finishing many layouts by Owen Fitzgerald and remains replaced him) until the early 1960s. Working closely with director Friz Freleng, Pratt's Warner Bros. resume includes the Oscar-winning cartoons Tweetie Pie, which introduced the duo of Sylvester and Tweety, Speedy Gonzales, where Freleng and Pratt redesigned the character into his modern incarnation, and Birds Anonymous. Pratt directed Señorella and the Glass Huarache, a Looney Tune released in 1964 after the studio closed its animation division.[3]

Pratt briefly worked at the Hanna-Barbera studio with Freleng before the two moved to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. They created the Pink Panther character for the animated title sequence of the 1963 feature film of the same name; though, Pratt is often solely credited for the character's creation.[4][3] While there, he directed (or co-directed) all episodes of The Pink Panther Show. Pratt made his directorial effort in the 1966 short The Pink Blueprint, which received an Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject (Cartoon). His other directorial works also include three Roland and Rattfink shorts, The Super 6, and three Dr. Seuss television specials: The Cat in the Hat and Dr. Seuss on the Loose, and The Lorax.[3] Pratt also served as associate director and animator of the 1964 film The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Hawley Pratt's last design credit was on Jetsons: The Movie in 1990.[1]

Pratt's skills also had him illustrating several Little Golden Books and Big Golden Books.

Pratt died on March 4, 1999.[5]

Awards

  • Golden Award 1992

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Hawley B. Pratt; Retired Animator". Los Angeles Times. 1999-03-07. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
  2. ↑ U.S. Census, 1920
  3. 1 2 3 Baxter, Devon (January 4, 2017). "Comics by Hawley Pratt". Cartoon Research.
  4. ↑ Baxter, Devon (August 3, 2016). "The Pink Panther "In The Pink" (1967)". Cartoon Research.
  5. ↑ "Animation World News - In Passing". 2002-03-28. Archived from the original on 2002-03-28. Retrieved 2019-08-23.
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