Bill Melendez

He was a Mexican-American character animator, voice artist, film director, and producer. He was known for his work at Walt Disney Productions and Warner Bros studios. He won six Emmy Awards, starting with “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965), the first “ Peanuts Click to look into! >> Read More... ” television special. With Lee Mendelson, he directed and animated about four movies, 70 Peanuts television specials, and hundreds of commercials. Born as José Cuauhtémoc Meléndez in the Mexican city of Hermosillo, Sonora, his father was an Army cavalry officer who later became a general. In 1928, his mother along with his siblings moved to Arizona concerning their studies. Later, their family moved to Los Angeles. He was a very brilliant student who attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He always wanted to be an engineer but after his graduation, there was the ‘The Great Depression.’ So he had to leave his studies and had to do odd jobs including working in a lumberyard. He got his first break when he showed his drawings to Walt Disney Company. After a routine training, Disney hired him in 1938. Here, he helped in animating ‘Fantasia’ and ‘Pinocchio’ cartoons. Disney named him Bill as his original name was too long for the credits on the screen. In 1941, he left Disney and moved to Leon Schlesinger Productions, which was later acquired by Warner Bros. Productions. At Warner Bros, he worked on developing and improving Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and the all time favorite Bugs Bunny. When Warner Bros. decided to reduce the number of working units from four to three, he moved to United Productions of America (UPA).

There, he developed cartoons such as ‘Gerald McBoing-Boing’ and several others. In 1964, he founded his company in the basement of his home named Bill Melendez Productions. It is still active and run by his son. The creator of ‘Peanuts’, Mr. Charles M. Schulz kept a deep faith in him. He was the only person whom Mr. Schulz allowed working on creating his characters into television specials. Melendez’s studio worked on everything related to Peanuts gang, a majority of them were directed by Melendez himself. Along with animating the cartoons, he also gave his voice to some characters such as ‘Woodstock’ and ‘Snoopy.’ His voice was run speeded up so that it can provide a gibberish sound to the animated characters. He married Helen Huhn in 1940, and they lived peacefully together until death separated them. They had two children both sons. His son, Steven is the president of Bill Melendez Productions and the other son, Rodrigo is a retired rear admiral in the United States Navy. He died at the age of ninety-one on September 2, 2008, in Santa Monica, California, USA. Even after his death, he will be remembered and loved for his decades of squeaks, squawks, and grunts.