Thornton Hee (March 26, 1911 – October 30, 1988) was an American animator, director, and teacher. He taught character design and caricature.

Career

Hee worked at

Leon Schlesinger Productions Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was ...

from 1935–36 as a character designer. He designed many of the celebrity caricatures used in ''

The CooCoo Nut Grove ''The CooCoo Nut Grove'' is a 1936 Warner Bros. '' Merrie Melodies'' short animated film, set in the famed Cocoanut Grove of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. The cartoon was directed by Friz Freleng, with animation by Robert McKimson and ...

'' (1936) and '' The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos'' (1937). A 1936 Christmas card that he drew, featuring caricatures of the Schlesinger animators, was used to design the

gremlin A gremlin is a mischievous folkloric creature invented at the beginning of the 20th century to originally explain malfunctions in aircraft and later in other machinery and processes and their operators. Depictions of these creatures vary widel ...

s in the 1944 animated short '' Russian Rhapsody.'' Hee joined

Walt Disney Animation Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios (WDAS), sometimes shortened to Disney Animation, is an American animation studio that creates animated features and short films for The Walt Disney Company. The studio's current production logo features a scene fro ...

around 1937. He is most recognized for directing the ''

Dance of the Hours ''Dance of the Hours'' (Italian: ') is a short ballet and is the act 3 finale of the opera '' La Gioconda'' composed by Amilcare Ponchielli. It depicts the hours of the day through solo and ensemble dances. The opera was first performed in 1876 ...

'' segment of '' Fantasia''. He left after the

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

, but returned to work there twice, from 1940 to 1946, and again from 1958 to 1961. Hee also worked for

United Productions of America United Productions of America, better known as UPA, was an American animation studio active from the 1940s through the 1970s. Beginning with industrial and World War II training films, UPA eventually produced theatrical shorts for Columbia Picture ...

(1951 to 1958) and

Terrytoons Terrytoons was an American animation studio in New Rochelle, New York, that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1929 to 1973 (and briefly returned between 1987 and 1996 for television in name only). Terrytoons was founded by ...

(1961 to 1963). Hee was one of the co-founders, with

Jack Hannah John Frederick Hannah (January 5, 1913 – June 11, 1994) was an American animator, writer and director of animated shorts. Biography Hannah was born on January 5, 1913, in Nogales, Arizona. He moved to Los Angeles in 1931 to study at the Art ...

, of the Character Animation program at the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

. He later served as chairman of the Film Arts Department. Hee provided the illustrations during the opening credits of ''

The Life of Riley ''The Life of Riley'' is an American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, a 1950s television series, and a 1958 comic book. Radio The radio program initially aired on the Blue Network (later kn ...

'' television show of the 1950s.

Notes

External links

*
A Timely Letter From T. Hee''
1911 births 1988 deaths American animators American film directors American animated film directors Walt Disney Animation Studios people Animators from Oklahoma Artists from Oklahoma Warner Bros. Cartoons people Terrytoons people {{US-animator-stub