Garry Trudeau | |
|---|---|
 Trudeau giving a lecture at Stanford in 2014 | |
| Born | Garretson Beekman Trudeau (1948-07-21)July 21, 1948 (age 77) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Education | Yale University (BA,MFA) |
| Occupation | Cartoonist |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Known for | Doonesbury |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Edward Livingston Trudeau (great-grandfather) |
Garretson Beekman Trudeau (born July 21, 1948) is an Americancartoonist best known for creating theDoonesbury comic strip.
Trudeau won thePulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1975, making him the firstcomic strip artist to win a Pulitzer. He is one of only two comic strip artists to win the award, the other beingBerkeley Breathed, whose work was influenced by Trudeau.[1] Trudeau was also the creator and executive producer of theAmazon Studios political comedy seriesAlpha House.
Trudeau was born in New York City, the son of Jean Douglas (née Moore, daughter of New York Assembly memberThomas Channing Moore) and Francis Berger Trudeau Jr.[2] He is the great-grandson ofEdward Livingston Trudeau, who createdAdirondack Cottage Sanitarium for the treatment ofpulmonary tuberculosis atSaranac Lake, New York. Edward was succeeded by his son Francis and grandson Francis Jr. The latter founded theTrudeau Institute at Saranac Lake, with which Garry Trudeau retains a connection.[3]
Raised in Saranac Lake, Trudeau attendedSt. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He enrolled inYale University in 1966. As an art major, Trudeau initially focused on painting, but soon discovered a greater interest in thegraphic arts. He spent much of his time cartooning and writing for Yale'shumor magazineThe Yale Record,[4] eventually serving as the magazine's editor-in-chief. At the same time, Trudeau began contributing to theYale Daily News, which eventually led to the creation ofBull Tales, a comic strip parodying the exploits of Yale quarterbackBrian Dowling. This strip was the progenitor ofDoonesbury.[5]
While still an undergraduate at Yale, Trudeau published two collections ofBull Tales:Bull Tales (1969, published by theYale Daily News)[6] andMichael J. (1970, published byThe Yale Record).[7]
As a senior, Trudeau became a member ofScroll and Key. He did postgraduate work at theYale School of Art, earning aMaster of Fine Arts degree in graphic design in 1973. It was there that Trudeau first met photographerDavid Levinthal, with whom he collaborated onHitler Moves East, an influential "graphic chronicle" of the German invasion of the Soviet Union.[8]
Soon afterBull Tales began running in the Yale student newspaper, the strip caught the attention of the newly formedUniversal Press Syndicate. The syndicate's editor, James F. Andrews, recruited Trudeau, changed the strip's name toDoonesbury, and began distributing it following the cartoonist's graduation in 1970. TodayDoonesbury issyndicated to 1,000 daily and Sunday newspapers worldwide and is accessible online in association withThe Washington Post.
In 1975, Trudeau became the first comic strip artist to win aPulitzer,[9] traditionally awarded to editorial-page cartoonists. He was also a Pulitzer finalist in 1990,[10] 2004,[11] and 2005.[10] Other awards during this time include theNational Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1994,[12] theReuben Award from the National Cartoonist Society in 1995,[10][13] the George Orwell Award in 1994,[14] and the Forte dei Marmi Prize for Satire 1990 in Italy,[15]
Awards received in the 21st century include: TheMax & Moritz Award for Best Comic Strip (2006, Germany)[16] the Harvey Award, Best Syndicated Strip (2011),[17] the George Polk Award, Lifetime Achievement (2015),[18][19] and the National Cartoonist Society's Gold T-Square (2021).[20]
Trudeau's work has been recognized by fellowships and halls of fame. In 1993, Trudeau was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[21] In 2021, he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame,[22] and the Eisner Hall of Fame in 2023.[23]
Wiley Miller, fellow comic-strip artist responsible forNon Sequitur, called him "far and away the most influential editorial cartoonist in the last 25 years".[24] A regular graduation speaker, Trudeau has received 37 honorary degrees.
In addition to his creating his strip, Trudeau has worked in both theater and television. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1977 in the category of Animated Short Film forA Doonesbury Special, created for NBC in collaboration withJohn andFaith Hubley. The film won theCannes Film Festival Jury Prize in 1978. In 1984, with composerElizabeth Swados, he wrote the book and lyrics for the Broadway musicalDoonesbury, for which he was nominated for twoDrama Desk Awards. A cast album of the show, recorded for MCA, received a Grammy nomination. Trudeau again collaborated with Swados in 1984, this time onRap Master Ronnie, a satirical revue about the Reagan Administration that opened off-Broadway at theVillage Gate. A filmed version, featuringJon Cryer, theSmothers Brothers, andCarol Kane, was broadcast on Cinemax in 1988.[25]
Also in 1988, Trudeau wrote and co-produced with directorRobert AltmanHBO's critically acclaimedTanner '88, a satiric look at that year's presidential election campaign. The show won the gold medal for Best Television Series at the Cannes Television Festival, theBritish Academy Television Award for Best Foreign Program, and Best Imported Program from the BritishBroadcasting Press Guild. It earned anEmmy Award, as well as fourACE Award nominations. In 2004, Trudeau reunited with Altman to write and co-produce a sequel mini-series,Tanner on Tanner, for theSundance Channel.[26]
In 1996,Newsweek andThe Washington Post[27] speculated that Trudeau had written the novelPrimary Colors, which was later revealed to have been written byJoe Klein. In February 2000, Trudeau, working with Dotcomix, launchedDuke2000, a web-based presidential campaign featuring a real-time, 3-D, streaming-animation version of Duke. Nearly 30 campaign videos were created for the site, and Ambassador Duke was interviewed live by satellite on theToday Show,Larry King Live,The Charlie Rose Show, and dozens of local TV and radio news shows.[28]
In 2013, Trudeau created, wrote and co-producedAlpha House, a political sitcom starringJohn Goodman that revolves around four Republican U.S. Senators who live together in a townhouse on Capitol Hill.[29] Trudeau was inspired to write the show's pilot after reading a 2007New York Times article about a real D.C. townhouse shared by New York Senator Chuck Schumer, Illinois SenatorDick Durbin, and California Representative George Miller, all Democrats.[30] The pilot forAlpha House was produced byAmazon Studios and aired in early 2013. Due to positive response, Amazon picked up the show to develop into a full series, streaming eleven episodes for its first season.[31] On March 31, 2014, Amazon announced thatAlpha House had been renewed.[32] Production began in July 2014, and the entire second season became available for streaming on October 24, 2014.[33]
While writingAlpha House, Trudeau put the daily Doonesbury into rerun mode. On March 3, 2014, the "Classic Doonesbury" series began, featuring approximately four weeks of daily strips from each year of the strip's run. He continues to produce new strips for Sundays. AlthoughAlpha House has not been in production since the end of 2014, Trudeau has not returned to creating dailyDoonesbury strips; new material remains a Sunday-only event.[34]
Trudeau has contributed to such publications asHarper's,Rolling Stone,The New Republic,The New Yorker,New York, andThe Washington Post. From 1990 to 1994, he wrote and drew an occasional column forThe New York Times op-ed page, and was a contributing essayist forTime magazine from 1996 to 2001.[35][36]
Beginning with the Gulf War in 1991, Trudeau has written about military issues extensively. In recognition for his work on injured soldiers, he has been presented with the Commander's Award for Public Service by theDepartment of the Army, the Commander's Award fromDisabled American Veterans, the President's Award for Excellence in the Arts fromVietnam Veterans of America, the Distinguished Public Service Award from theAmerican Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the Mental Health Research Advocacy Award from theYale School of Medicine, and a special citation from the Vet Centers.[37]
He received several unit commendations from the field during the Gulf War, and he traveled with theUSO to visit troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. From 2005 to 2014, his website hostedThe Sandbox, a milblog posting over 800 essays by deployed soldiers, returned vets, caregivers, and spouses. For most of the strip's run, Trudeau has eschewed merchandising, but starting in 1998 he teamed up withStarbucks to createDoonesbury products to raise funds for local literacy programs. The items were offered for sale in Starbucks stores for nearly two years and raised over $1 million. Also for charity, Trudeau licensed the strip to Ben & Jerry's, which created a bestselling sorbet flavor calledDoonesberry.[38]
Trudeau's son Ross, a digital media producer, is also a crossword constructor who has been published in theNew York Times. As part of the ongoing celebrity partnership series, father and son collaborated on a crossword puzzle that was published on May 15, 2018, in theTimes.[39][40]
Trudeau, formerly a member ofWriters Guild of America, East, left and maintainedfinancial core status.[41]
Trudeau marriedJane Pauley on June 14, 1980; they have three children.[42][43]He maintains a low personal profile. A rare early appearance on television was as a guest onTo Tell the Truth in 1971, where only one of the three panelists guessed his identity.[44] In 1990, Trudeau appeared on the cover ofNewsweek forInside Doonesbury's Brain, a story written byJonathan Alter. This was the first interview Trudeau had given in 17 years.[45]
Trudeau cooperated extensively withWired magazine for a 2000 profile, "The Revolution Will be Satirized". He later spoke with the writer of that article, Edward Cone, for a 2004 newspaper column in theGreensboro, North Carolina,News & Record, about the war wounds suffered by the Doonesbury character "B.D.", and in 2006 did a Q&A at Cone's personal blog about The Sandbox. Trudeau granted an interview toRolling Stone in 2004 in which he discussed his time at Yale, which he entered two years afterGeorge W. Bush. He granted anotherRolling Stone interview in 2010. In 2006,The Washington Post printed an extensive profile of Trudeau by writerGene Weingarten.[46] He appeared on theCharlie Rose television program,[5] and at signings forThe Long Road Home: One Step at a Time, hisDoonesbury book aboutB.D.'s struggle with injuries received during thesecond Gulf War.[47]
On August 1, 2016, Trudeau appeared on MSNBC onThe Rachel Maddow Show. He was brought on to discuss his prediction aboutDonald Trump's plans to run for president almost three decades earlier. Maddow presented cartoon strips from as far back as 1987. Trudeau was on her show to promote his new bookYuge, which covers 30 years of Trump appearing inDoonesbury.[48] On November 7, 2016, Trudeau appeared onFresh Air withTerry Gross[49] to discussYuge.[50] On theCBS News Sunday Morning broadcast of December 2, 2018, he was featured and was interviewed by his wife,Jane Pauley.
Eric Alterman, writing inThe Nation, calledDoonesbury "one of the great intellectual/artistic accomplishments of the past half-century, irrespective of category".[51]
Trudeau has also attracted criticism both for the comic strip and for his own opinions. In 1985, responding to changes after his1983–1984 hiatus inDoonesbury, readers ofThe Saturday Review voted Trudeau one of the "Most Overrated People in American Arts and Letters", stating that after his hiatus, his comic strip was "predictable, mean-spirited, and not as funny as before."[52] Trudeau's acceptance speech on the occasion of receiving aPolk Award in 2015 for lifetime achievement stirred controversy.[53] In the speech, Trudeau criticized the cartoonists ofCharlie Hebdo—some of whom had recently been killed by terrorists after publishing anti-Muslim cartoons —for "punching downward... attacking a powerless, disenfranchised minority with crude, vulgar drawings closer to graffiti than cartoons", and thereby wandering "into the realm of hate speech" with cartoons ofMuhammad.[54] Writing inThe Atlantic, in which Trudeau had published his speech, political commentatorDavid Frum criticized what he called Trudeau's "moral theory" that calls for identifying "the bearer of privilege", then holding "the privilege-bearer responsible".[55]
Most of Trudeau's original drawings for Doonesbury, along with letters, notebooks, and other archival materials, are in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.[56] Original drawings are also in the collections of the Library of Congress;[57] the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of American History;[58] the National Portrait Gallery;[59] the National Museum of Health and Medicine;[60] and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University.[61]
"I've never been a comics fan," Breathed explains. " 'Doonesbury' was the first strip I ever paid attention to and followed regularly--which may explain the obvious roots of 'Bloom County.' " During the seven years he's been drawing the strip, Breathed has gradually found his own voice, although Trudeau's influence can still be seen in the way he structures and paces many of his gags.
