#howard beckerman

[dannyreviews]

Animation Professionals Over 90 Still Alive

10 years ago, Cartoon Brew had an article about animators from the Golden Age and beyond over a certain age still living.

https://www.cartoonbrew.com/animators/who-are-the-oldest-living-animation-artists-88196.html

Unfortunately, the lion's share of that group have since passed away, save for a handful of names. For this post, I would like to highlight (in age order) those from studios like Disney, Warner Brothers as well as independent bases that are around today who represent the last living links to old school animation. These include artists, directors and writers. Exclusive voice actors or animated music composers are not counted.

Vera Linnecar (b. 1923) Halas/Bachelor, Bob Godfrey

Enid Wizig (b. 1923) Warner Brothers (Update: Passed Away on February 12, 2026)

Joe Hale (b. 1925) Disney (Update: Passed Away on January 29, 2025)

Lillian Schwartz (b. 1927) Independent (Update: Passed Away on October 12, 2024)

Witold Giersz (b. 1927) Independent

Bob Singer (b. 1928) Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera

Yoji Kuri (b. 1928) Independent (Update: Passed Away on November 24, 2024)

Robert Verrall (b. 1928) National Film Board of Canada (Update: Passed Away on January 17, 2025)

Peter Maddocks (b. 1928) Independent (Update: Passed Away on November 20, 2024)

Zdeňka Deitchová (b. 1928) Gene Deitch

Art Leonardi (b. 1929) Warner Brothers, MGM

Jules Feiffer (b. 1929) Paramount, Terrytoons (Update: Passed Away on January 17, 2025)

Don Iwerks (b. 1929) Disney

Phil Roman (b. 1930) Chuck Jones, Fox, Independent

Howard Beckerman (b. 1930) Famous Studios, Terrytoons, Independent (Update: Passed Away on June 29, 2024)

R.O. Blechman (b. 1930) Terrytoons, Independent

Stan Hayward (b. 1930) Bob Godfrey

Joseph Koenig (b. 1930) National Film Board of Canada

Jack Heiter (b. 1930) Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon, UPA

Rein Raamat (b. 1931) Independent

Ed Seeman (b. 1931) Paramount (Update: Passed Away on February 14, 2025)

Fred Wolf (b. 1932) Independent

Brian Trueman (b. 1932) BBC (Update: Passed Away on September 1, 2024)

Fumio Kurokawa (b. 1932) Nippon Animation (Update: Passed Away on April 10, 2024)

Yvonne Andersen (b. 1932) Independent

Masaki Tsuji (b. 1932) Mushi, Toen, TMS

Dean Tavoularis (b. 1932) Disney

Doris A. Plough (b. 1932) Disney, Don Bluth, Hanna-Barbera, Fox

Inessa Kovalevskaya (b. 1933) Soyuzmultfilm

Boris Kolar (b. 1933) Independent (no other photo available)

Update (12/23): Adding Virginia Fleener (b. 1922) Disney

[rankinbass-hobbit]

Howard Beckerman R.I.P.

  Howard Beckerman R. I. P. It looks like my friend Howard passed away. I always loved this 1963 picture Howard sent me of himself, with

[askrapitsalex]

This is a caricature of one of my SVA professors Howard Beckerman. He was my primary inspiration of going deep into animation history. I modelled him with a Popeye-like design to represent the classic era of cartoons and his appearance kind of reminds of Popeye. Wherever or whenever he is, he was a legend that should be remembered in animation history. 

[beadle-an220-fa14]

Animation: The Whole Story

Date//Time: Sunday September 14th, 2014//1:30-2:30 PM

Activity: Read chapters eight through ten of Animation: The Whole Story by Howard Beckerman

Reflection: Overall, the three chapters were somewhat interesting, although when he information given became more technical and less art-based, my attention began to lessen. I did enjoy however, in chapter nine when Beckerman discussed important aspects for animation directors and the importance in keeping up the animators. 

[beadle-an220-fa14]

Animation: The Whole Story

By Howard Beckerman -- Revised Edition

Date//Time: August 31st//5:21-6:10 PM; September 2nd//12:15-1:00 AM

Activity: Read chapters one through three of Howard Beckerman's Animation: The Whole Story

Reflection: I ended up buying the book as a possible future resource, and so far I enjoy reading about the history of animation. The first chapter was short, but went by much slower I felt due to the technical talk of early methods of animating, but the further into the chapters I got, the more immersed I was. While learning about the history of the technology is interesting, I found myself more likely to skim those areas and then having to go back and reread them so as to not miss anything. However learning about the animators and their various paths through the use of sound and color during chapter three interested me far more. 

While reading chapter one I paused to watch Winsor McCay's Gertie the Trained Dinosaur (1914) on Youtube as I had never heard of the character before, and found myself quietly snickering to myself at the simple antics. I recognized some tactics mentioned in that chapter as well, such as the simple outline without the times cross-hatching methods usually reserved for political cartoons.