Bud Luckey

William Bud Luckey was born on July 28, 1934. He is an American singer, musician, voice actor, composer, and cartoonist. Bud is best known for lending his voice for Rick Dicker in The Incredibles, Chuckles the Crown in Toy Story 3 and Winnie the Pooh. He has designed the characters in movies like ‘Ratatouille’, The Incredibles, ‘Cars’, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, ‘Boundin’, Toy Story, , and The Toy Story 3 at Pixar.

He is born and brought up in Billings, Montana. He earlier served as a Visual Information Specialist in North Africa and Europe, from 1953-1954, with NATO Allied Occupation Force. After resigning from Air Force Duty, he enrolled at Chouinard Art Institute from 1957-1960. After completing his graduation, he worked as Babbitt’s assistant at Quartet Films in Los Angeles. In 1961, he worked as an animator for The Alvin Show. He also worked for Mad magazine television special as an animator produced by Jimmy Murakami and Gordon Bellamy.

He worked on television commercials for Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies, and Froot Loops. He became in charge of all advisements containing Schulz character as the senior art director and producer. Don Hadley, his friend, who is a creative writer, co-produced/ created many short documentary films of Sesame Street Sesame Street is a preschool educational TV show t >> Read More... with Luckey. In early 2000’s Hadley worked with Luckey at Pixar. Luckey is the great mind behind the idea to make a cowboy doll, Woody, during the making of Toy Story.

Luckey is the founder of The Luckey’s Zamora Picture Moving Company, an animation studio, which he owned in the early 1970s and in the late 80s he merged it with Colossal Pictures before he joined Pixar in 1992. Luckey was the fifth animator of Pixar. From 1991-1992, he designed the characters for the animated adaptation of the movie Back To The Future.. He has worked as a writer, director, composer, and performed as solo singer/narrator at Pixar 2004 Animated Short Film ‘Boundin’ and won the Annie Award and an Academy Award nomination in the Best Animated Short Film category.

Bud got partly retired from Pixar in 2008 but continued working with the studio as a voice over artist from time to time. He has seen computer technology growing and animation industry going through immense uproar in front of his eyes but he has survived and is flourishing in this new age of digital media. Bud has illustrated and designed more than 100 books for children which consisted of his characters like The Golden Book Mater and The Ghost Light.