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Raymond Patterson (November 23, 1911 – December 30, 2001) was an Americananimator, producer, and director. He was born inHollywood, California, and was the younger brother of animatorDon Patterson.

Patterson's earliest works in animation were forCharles B. Mintz'sKrazy Kat/Screen Gems studio, where he started as an inker in 1929. He remained at Mintz for eleven years.^[3] In 1940, he moved toWalt Disney Productions, where he animated onFantasia andDumbo, as well as severalPluto shorts (Bone Trouble andPluto's Playmate). By 1942, he mostly worked on Donald Duck shorts such asDonald Gets Drafted.

Patterson left Disney in 1941 during ananimation strike. He would briefly reunite withScreen Gems, now creatively supervised byFrank Tashlin, before moving to theMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio in 1943, with his first short for them beingWar Dogs, followed byBaby Puss, his debut on theTom and Jerry series. While he mostly worked in the studio'sHanna-Barbera unit, he occasionally provided animation forTex Avery's unit in the 1950s (as well as Avery's substitute directorDick Lundy). He worked on severalAcademy Award-winning animation shorts:Mouse Trouble (1944),Quiet Please! (1945),The Little Orphan (1948), andJohann Mouse (1952). Patterson (along with his colleagueIrven Spence) would briefly leave MGM in the mid 40's. During this period, he would help organize and educate animators fromDavid Hand's Gaumount British Animation Studio.^[4] He and Spence would later move back to MGM in the late 40's.

Patterson left MGM permanently in 1953 and was briefly hired byWalter Lantz. He (alongside former Tex Avery animator Grant Simmons) would direct two shorts,Broadways Bow Wows andDig that Dog.^[4] Months afterwards, Patterson and Simmons leftWalter Lantz Productions and co-founded their own studio,Grantray-Lawrence Animation, which he operated until 1967. GrantRay-Lawrence's early work was providing animation for television commercials, including the original"Winston Tastes Good" campaign. The company later moved on to producing such animated television series asSpider-Man andThe Marvel Superheroes.^[3]

After GrantRay-Lawrence folded in 1967, Patterson joined his former bosses atHanna-Barbera, where he worked as a supervising director on several animated television series. Patterson was eventually promoted to vice president in charge of animation direction, a position he held until his retirement in 1993.

Patterson was awarded the 1999Winsor McCay Award by the International Animated Film Society,ASIFA-Hollywood for his lifetime of contributions to the animation field.^[2]

Ray was married to June Walker Patterson. June worked at Disney as a cel painter.^[5] They had four daughters.^[2]

Patterson died of natural causes inEncino, California on December 30, 2001, a month after his 90th birthday.^[3][2]

• Ray Patterson atIMDb
• Death notice at the Animation Guild website

• 1911 births
• 2001 deaths
• Animators from California
• American television directors
• American animated film directors
• American animated film producers
• Walt Disney Animation Studios people
• Hanna-Barbera people
• People from Hollywood, Los Angeles
• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio people
• Walter Lantz Productions people

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