Rudy Zamora

Rudy Zamora
Born
Joaquin Rudolfo Zamora

(1910-03-26)March 26, 1910
Mexico City, Mexico
DiedJuly 29, 1989(1989-07-29) (aged 79)
Occupation(s)Animator, animation director
Years active1927–1987

Joaquin Rudolfo Zamora (March 26, 1910 – July 29, 1989) was a Mexican-American animator[1] and animation director. His credits include, among others, The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, The Biskitts, Peanuts.

Career

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Zamora was born in Mexico City, Mexico, but raised in the United States.[2] As a young adult, he read a help wanted ad in the local newspaper seeking a male animator at Pat Sullivan's studio. Despite Zamora having no prior experience in the field, he was intrigued and applied. His test entailed tracing a photo of Felix the Cat, and Zamora was hired after placing second among three men.[2] Zamora was still employed at Pat Sullivan's in 1928.[3]

He was hired as an inbetweener at Fleischer Studios in 1930,[4] and eventually became an animator there. Shamus Culhane described Zamora as "the star" among the new batch of animators at Fleischer.[5]

Following his stint at Fleischer, Zamora worked at Walt Disney Productions during the early 1930s, with Ed Benedict as his assistant.[6] While there, Zamora animated on Silly Symphony cartoons, including The China Plate (1931).[6] Zamora had a reputation for spending too much time playing practical jokes as opposed to working, and for this reason was fired by Walt Disney in 1932.[7]

By the 1940s he was an animator at Metro-Goldwyn Mayer, working on short films during World War II.[8] In 1944, he was one of several animators of the Woody Woodpecker short The Barber of Seville.[9] This cartoon was later chosen as one of The 50 Greatest Cartoons in 1994.[10] Throughout the 1960s, Zamora served as director for Rocky & Bullwinkle and Peabody's Improbable History, also overseeing Mexican animators who worked on the series overseas.[11]

At the twilight of his career, Zamora was a director at Hanna-Barbera. He helmed episodes of Richie Rich,[12] The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show[13] and Laverne & Shirley, an animated adaptation of the sitcom.[14] Zamora directed a Christmas episode of The Smurfs that aired in 1983.[15] Zamora's last credit was the 1987 television film Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose.

References

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  1. ^ Falide, Augusto A.; Doyle, William S. (1996). Latino Success: Insights from 100 of America's Most Powerful Latino Business Professionals. Simon & Schuster. p. 78. ISBN 9780684813127.
  2. ^ a b Deneroff, Harvey (December 21, 2015). "A Chat with Rudy Zamora". Cartoon Research. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  3. ^ Sito, Tom (October 6, 2006). Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson. University Press of Kentucky. p. 14. ISBN 9780813171487.
  4. ^ Barrier, Michael (September 16, 2003). Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age. Oxford University Press. p. 284. ISBN 9780199839223.
  5. ^ Culhane, Shamus (March 21, 1998). Talking animals and other people. Hachette Books. p. 43. ISBN 9780306808302.
  6. ^ a b Barrier, Michael (April 7, 2008). The Animated Man: A Life of Walt Disney. University of California Press. p. 84. ISBN 9780520256194.
  7. ^ Peri, Don (2011). Working with Disney: Interviews with Animators, Producers, and Artists. University Press of Mississippi. p. 71. ISBN 9781604739404.
  8. ^ Shull, Michael E.; Wilt, David E. (May 23, 2014). Doing Their Bit: Wartime American Animated Short Films, 1939–1945 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Company. p. 156. ISBN 9780786481699.
  9. ^ Baxter, Devon (November 25, 2015). "Walter Lantz "Barber Of Seville" (1944)". Cartoon Research. Retrieved December 6, 2022.
  10. ^ Beck, Jerry (1994). The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals. Turner Publishing.
  11. ^ Scott, Keith (April 8, 2014). The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose. Macmillan Publishers. p. 190. ISBN 9781466867437.
  12. ^ Perlmutter, David (May 4, 2018). The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 503. ISBN 9781538103746.
  13. ^ Browning, John Edgar; Picart, Caroline Joan (January 10, 2014). Dracula in Visual Media: Film, Television, Comic Book and Electronic Game Appearances, 1921-2010. McFarland & Company. p. 155. ISBN 9780786462018.
  14. ^ Leszczak, Bob (May 16, 2016). Single Season Sitcoms of the 1980s: A Complete Guide. McFarland & Company. p. 211. ISBN 9781476623849.
  15. ^ Crump, William D. (August 28, 2013). The Christmas Encyclopedia (3rd ed.). McFarland & Company. p. 388. ISBN 9781476605739.
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