One of the world's greatest animation directors, Charles M. "Chuck" Jones died this afternoon. It hasn't made the wire services at this moment but any minute now, they'll erupt with the sad news. Someone once wrote that if all Chuck Jones had ever given us was What's Opera, Doc? and One Froggy Evening, he would still be hailed as one of the greats. It's very easy to forget — and watch the obits and see if this isn't the case — how truly staggering was this man's lifetime output. He was born in 1912 and started as a lowly cel washer (the rock bottom job in the biz at the time) in 1932, working for Ub Iwerks. In 1936, he became a junior, apprentice animator at Leon Schlesinger's cartoon studio (aka Warner Brothers) and, just two years later, directed his first cartoon, The Night Watchman.
Before long, he was among the architects of the legendary Warner Brothers cartoon style, supervising some of the exploits of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, as well as several series that were all his…most notably, Pepe LePew and the legendary Road Runner and Coyote.
When theatrical animation died out, he segued to television where his output was more varied, but still hit occasional heights with specials like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The last few years, he had supervised several animation projects and done a lot in the field of limited edition cels.
This is only a short overview. In the days and weeks to come, I'm sure we'll hear and see tons of specials, articles, obits and tributes to the man. And you know what? They still probably won't list all that he did.