Art Clokey | |
|---|---|
 Clokey in 1967 | |
| Born | Arthur Charles Farrington (1921-10-12)October 12, 1921 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | January 8, 2010(2010-01-08) (aged 88) Los Osos, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Pomona College Miami University University of Southern CaliforniaThe Webb Schools |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1953–1995 |
| Notable work | Creator ofGumby andDavey and Goliath |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Family | Joseph W. Clokey (father) |
| Awards | Inkpot Award (2006)[1] |
Arthur Clokey (bornArthur Charles Farrington; October 12, 1921 – January 8, 2010) was an American animator, director, producer, screenwriter and voice actor, he was pioneer in the popularization ofstop-motionclay animation, best known as the creator of the characterGumby and the original voice of Gumby's sidekick, Pokey. Clokey's career began in 1953 with a film experiment calledGumbasia, which was influenced by his professor,Slavko Vorkapich, at theUniversity of Southern California.[2][3][4][5] Clokey and his wife Ruth subsequently came up with the clay character Gumby and his horse Pokey, who first appeared in theHowdy Doody Show and later got their own seriesThe Adventures of Gumby, from which they became a familiar presence on American television. The characters enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1980s when American actor and comedianEddie Murphy parodied Gumby in a skit onSaturday Night Live.
Clokey's second-most famous production is the duo ofDavey and Goliath, funded by theLutheran Church in America (now theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America).[6]
Clokey founded the company Premavision (which has manufacturing subsidiary, Prema Toy Company) around his Gumby and Pokey franchise.
Arthur Charles Farrington was born in Detroit on October 12, 1921. After his parents' divorce when he was about 8, he lived with his father; when Arthur was 9, his father was killed in an automobile accident. Rejoining his mother in California, the boy was banished by her new husband and placed in a children's home. At about 11, young Arthur was adopted byJoseph Waddell Clokey, a well-known composer of sacred and secular music.[7]
AtWebb School in Claremont, young Clokey came under the influence of teacher Ray Alf, who took students on expeditions digging for fossils and learning about the world around them. Clokey later studiedgeology atPomona College, where his new father Joseph was an organist, before leaving in 1943 to join the Air Corps as a reconnaissance photographer duringWorld War II.[8][9] He graduated from his father's alma mater,Miami University, in 1948.[10]
Art Clokey also made a few highly experimental and visually inventive short clay animation films for adults, including his first student filmGumbasia (produced in 1953 and released in 1955), the visually richMandala (1977)—described by Clokey as a metaphor for evolving human consciousness—and the equally bizarreThe Clay Peacock (1959), an elaboration on the animatedNBC logo of the time.[11][12] Consisting of animated clay shapes contorting to a jazz score,Gumbasia so intrigued Samuel G. Engel, then president of the Motion Pictures Producers Association, that he financed the pilot film for what became Clokey'sTheGumby Show (1957). The titleGumbasia was in homage to Walt Disney'sFantasia.
In 1987, Clokey provided the voice for the figure Pokey inArnold Leibovit's filmThe Puppetoon Movie, and voiced him thereafter.
The Clokeys are credited with the clay-animationtitle sequences for the 1965 beach moviesDr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine andHow to Stuff a Wild Bikini. His son, Joe Clokey, continued theDavey and Goliath cartoon in 2004. In March 2007,KQED-TV broadcast the hour-long documentaryGumby Dharma as part of theirTruly CA series.[13]
In 1995, Clokey directed and co-wrote (with his second wife, Gloria)Gumby: The Movie, a feature film. The movie was not a success at the box office and was widely panned by critics, although it saw modest success on home media, going on to sell more than a million copies on home media, cementing itself as acult classic.[14]
Clokey died in his sleep on January 8, 2010, at age 88, at his home inLos Osos, California, after suffering recurrent bladder infections.[15][16][17]
On October 13, 2011, a day after what would have been Clokey's 90th birthday,Google paid homage to his life and works with an interactivelogo doodle in the style of his clay animations, includingGumby, produced by Premavision Studios.[18]
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