Who’s a Super Genius besides Wile E. Coyote? Why … master animator, Chuck Jones, of course! 

September 21 would have been Chuck Jones’s 110th birthday. As one of the greatest legendary animators during the Golden Age of Animation, Chuck Jones built a legacy as creator and innovator of some of the most beautifully designed and wittiest cartoons ever made. Working alongside Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Bob Clampett, and other iconic creatives, Jones helped transform the artistry of animation. 

How did it all begin? Jones credited his artistic genius to his father. In the 1920s, his father was a California businessman who would start every new business with fresh stationery and new pencils with the company name printed on them. When a business folded, his children “inherited a fresh legacy of the finest drawing materials imaginable.” 

With an endless paper and pencil supply, Jones’ creativity squiggled to the surface with every Dot and Line. According to Chuck, Johnson the cat was the start when he “padded in on little fog feet” and taught Chuck one of the first important lessons in animation: individuality. Little did Chuck know at that time, that his father’s discarded paper and pencils would be the first step to his destiny to become one of the greatest animator directors of all time.

The wisdom didn’t stop there. Jones gathered his animation lessons like baseball cards from believability and character to Mark Twain’s insight and stacks of books. Once at Chouinard Art Institute, Jones’s first instructor greeted his class with the pronouncement that “all of you here have one hundred thousand bad drawings in you. The sooner you get rid of them, the better it will be for everyone.” Those words proved a great relief to Chuck Jones, who was well past the mark by that time, having used up all his father’s stationery.

By the end of his career, and without a swagger throughout his life, Jones had tacked more than 500 films, earned three Oscars, and nine nominations and in 1996 Jones was honored with a lifetime achievement award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. He directed such television classics as 1966’s “Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who.” 

His exceptional talent and influence on generations of animators and filmmakers lives on including Steven Spielberg who once said that “Birdus Fleetus and Lupus Persisticus were my childhood heroes.”

Let’s keep his legacy alive by celebrating and remembering all his fantastic and riveting work on His special day!

Happy 110th Birthday Chuck!