Shirley Silvey (December 5, 1927 – July 17, 2010) was an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

, whose credits included ''

Mr. Magoo Mr. Magoo (known by his full name: J. Quincy Magoo) is a fictional cartoon character created at the UPA animation studio in 1949. Voiced by Jim Backus, Mr. Magoo is an elderly, wealthy, short-statured retiree who gets into a series of comical ...

'', '' The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'', '' Dudley Do-Right Show'' and ''

George of the Jungle ''George of the Jungle'' is an American animated television series produced and created by Jay Ward and Bill Scott, who also created ''The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show''. The character George was inspired by the story of Tarzan and a cartoon char ...

''. Silvey was considered a pioneer in animation, as she was one of the first women to work in the field.

Career

Silvey graduated from

Jepson Art Institute Jepson Art Institute, founded in 1945 by artist Herbert Jepson, was an art school located at 2861 West 7th Street in the Westlake district of central Los Angeles, California. It flourished from 1947 to 1953 — becoming an important center for ...

in Los Angeles. She began her career at United Productions of America (UPA) during the late 1950s. A friend had suggested that she approach cartoon director Ed Levitt for a job at UPA, since he was looking for beginning animators and was also an alumna of Jepson Art Institute. Levitt hired Silvey when he joined UPA, where she first worked in layout,

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, i ...

and

character Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

design. Her credits at UPA included ''

Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol ''Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol'' is a 1962 animated musical holiday television special produced by UPA. It is an adaptation of Charles Dickens' 1843 novella '' A Christmas Carol'', and it features UPA's character Mr. Magoo as Ebenezer Scro ...

'', ''

1001 Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'' and '' The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show''. Silvey moved to Jay Ward Productions in 1959. She worked with Jay Ward on numerous animated cartoons, including '' The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'', ''

'', ''

Fractured Fairy Tales ''The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends'' (commonly referred to as simply ''Rocky and Bullwinkle'') is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959, to June 27, 1964, on the ABC and NBC tele ...

'', '' Dudley Do-Right'' and the '' Cap'n Crunch'' television commercials. Silvey remained at Jay Ward Productions until 1973. She also briefly worked on Bugs Bunny cartoons at Warner Bros.

Death

Shirley Silvey died of

heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome, a group of signs and symptoms caused by an impairment of the heart's blood pumping function. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, excessive fatigue, a ...

on July 17, 2010, in Fresno, California, at the age of 82. She was survived by a daughter, two grandchildren and her brother, storyboard and design artist David Jonas.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Silvery, Shirley 1927 births 2010 deaths American animators UPA (animation studio) American women animators 20th-century American women artists 21st-century American women