Occupation Animator Parents Ramon Melendez Role Animator | Name Bill Melendez Years active 1938–2006 | |
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Full Name Jose Cuauhtemoc Melendez Born November 15, 1916 ( 1916-11-15 ) Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico Died September 2, 2008, Santa Monica, California, United States Spouse Helen Melendez (m. 1940–2008) Children Steven C. Melendez, Rodrigo Cuauhtemoc Movies and TV shows The Peanuts Movie, A Charlie Brown Christmas, The Charlie Brown an, It's the Great Pumpkin, Snoopy - Come Home Similar People Charles M Schulz, Lee Mendelson, Francesca Capaldi, Peter Robbins, Steve Martino | ||
Bill melendez on the gigi iam show 1 of 2
José Cuauhtémoc Meléndez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008), known as Bill Melendez, was a Mexican American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Walt Disney Productions (working on four Disney films Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi), Warner Bros. Cartoons, UPA and the Peanuts series. Melendez provided the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock in the latter as well.
Contents
- Bill melendez on the gigi iam show 1 of 2
- Bill melendez on the gigi iam show 2 of 2
- Early life
- Warner Bros UPA and commercial animation work
- Peanuts TV specials movies and TV shows
- Death
- Posthumous return to Peanuts
- Related companies
- References
Bill melendez on the gigi iam show 2 of 2
Early life
A native of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, Melendez was educated in U.S. public schools in Douglas, Arizona. He later attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles (which would later become California Institute of the Arts).
Warner Bros., UPA and commercial animation work
Following the 1941 Disney strike, Bill was hired by Leon Schlesinger to animate in Bob Clampett's unit. After Clampett's departure, Bill moved to the Arthur Davis unit. When the number of animation units at Warner Bros. was reduced from four to three in 1948, Melendez, after being moved to Robert McKimson's unit for a time, moved over to United Productions of America (UPA) where he animated on cartoons such as Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950). Melendez also produced and directed thousands of television commercials, first at UPA, then Playhouse Pictures and John Sutherland Productions. In 1963, Melendez founded his own studio in the basement of his Hollywood home. Bill Melendez Productions is still active and is currently run by his son Steven C. Melendez. In addition to animation, Melendez was once a faculty member at the University of Southern California's Cinema Arts Department.
Peanuts TV specials, movies and TV shows
Melendez was the only person Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz trusted to turn his popular comic creations into television specials. He and his studio worked on every single television special and direct-to-video film for the Peanuts gang and Melendez directed the majority of them. He even provided the vocal effects for Snoopy and Woodstock in every single production, voice acting the characters in the studio by uttering gibberish, and the voices were mechanically sped up at different volumes to represent the two different characters.
According to a New York Times article shortly after his death, Melendez did not intend to do voice acting for the two characters. "Schulz would not countenance the idea of a beagle uttering English dialogue, Mr. Melendez recited gibberish into a tape recorder, sped it up and put the result on the soundtrack.“ He also directed, did the animation for, and provided voice acting in the first four Peanuts theatrical films, A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), Snoopy, Come Home (1972), Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980). The last Peanuts-related production he worked on was He's a Bully, Charlie Brown (2006).
Melendez and Lee Mendelson, who also worked on the Peanuts specials, films, and TV shows, formed their own production team and did other animated specials. They were responsible for the first two Garfield animated specials, Here Comes Garfield (1982) and Garfield on the Town (1983), as well as Frosty Returns (1992), the pseudo-sequel to Rankin/Bass' Frosty the Snowman (1969).
Death
On September 2, 2008, Melendez died at his home in Santa Monica at the age of 91. He had been in declining health after a fall a year earlier. No cause of death was made public. Melendez was cremated and his ashes were given to his family.
Posthumous return to Peanuts
Archive recordings of his work as Snoopy and Woodstock were used for the film The Peanuts Movie. This makes him the only member of the film's cast to have been involved in a previous Peanuts project, save for Kristin Chenoweth, who won a Tony Award for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Broadway.