Ken Harris | |
|---|---|
| Born | Karyl Ross Harris (1898-07-31)July 31, 1898 |
| Died | March 24, 1982(1982-03-24) (aged 83) |
| Occupation(s) | Animator, race car driver, director, writer, storyboard artist |
| Years active | 1926–1982 |
| Employer(s) | Romer Grey Studio (1930–1931)[1] Warner Bros. Cartoons (1931–1963) MGM Animation/Visual Arts (1963–1967) DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (1963) Hanna-Barbera (1964) Richard Williams Productions (1967–1982) |
| Spouse(s) | Alta (1927–1963; her death) Kathryn (1966–1982; his death) |
Karyl Ross "Ken"Harris (July 31, 1898 – March 24, 1982) was an Americananimator best known for his work atWarner Bros. Cartoons under the supervision of directorChuck Jones.
Ken Harris was born inTulare County, California. He finished his education at an unknown college inStockton, New Jersey. Harris started as a race car builder and driver with his brother, who had a garage. Harris and his brother had to spend $4,000 ($66,120 in 2022 dollars) on a race track. He raced at Ascot three times in 1926. One time he went 113 miles. Around the time he was a racer, he started being an assistant service vice manager and selling cars at aPontiac agency before the agency eventually closed down. His first job as an artist was for Sid Ziff, where he sold some cartoons to him here and there. Then he worked for theLos Angeles Herald Examiner, from 1927 to around 1930, when he joined the ill-fated Romer Grey studio, owned by the son of successful Western authorZane Grey. Following the completion of at least two cartoons, the Grey studio, failing to find a distributor, closed in 1931. Harris finally ended up atLeon Schlesinger Productions within theFriz Freleng unit, then producing the higher-budgetedMerrie Melodies shorts. Upon Freleng's departure at the end of 1937, Harris was relocated into theFrank Tashlin unit. Several months later, Tashlin himself left and the unit was taken over byChuck Jones, beginning an association between Jones and Harris that lasted until 1962, the longest time an animator spent with a director at the studio.[2][3] Harris briefly animated for the UPA shortThe Brotherhood of Man.[4] A highly-productive animator capable of completing large volumes of footage with relative ease, Harris, having finished his daily footage quotas ahead of schedule, would sometimes go play tennis and buy a new car during the workday, according to Jerry Beck and assistant animator Corny Cole. Jones described him as "a virtuoso. Ken Harris did it all." Dan Backslide, one of the characters from the Jones shortThe Dover Boys, was a caricature of Harris.[5][6][2]
After Jones left Warner's, Harris worked with former animator Phil Monroe on two cartoons before Warner Bros. closed its cartoon department. In 1963, Harris worked briefly forFriz Freleng on the titles ofThe Pink Panther (1963), then forHanna-Barbera on their first feature filmHey There It's Yogi Bear! (1964), then rejoined Jones atMGM for three years. After work as an animator onHow the Grinch Stole Christmas! (1966) — directed by Jones, a longtime friend ofDr. Seuss — Harris came to the studio of independent animatorRichard Williams inLondon in 1967, in which he became Williams' simultaneous mentor and employee. Harris's credits with him includedA Christmas Carol (1971) — as animator of Ebenezer Scrooge — the opening titles ofThe Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and the still-unfinished animated featureThe Thief and the Cobbler (animating the eponymous thief, whose body language and facial expressions are highly reminiscent of Harris's earlier work animatingWile E. Coyote for Jones).[2][7]
Among the many scenes Harris animated: Mama Bear doing an outrageoustap dance (which Chuck Jones, who directed the cartoon, and who was Harris' longtime collaborator, has said was inspired byMichael Maltese, "who could really dance that way") inA Bear for Punishment; Wile E. Coyote consuming earthquake pills inHopalong Casualty; and the lengthy dance sequence inWhat's Opera, Doc?.
Harris died on March 24, 1982, fromParkinson's disease in Woodland, California, at 83 years of age.[2]
At the 1981 Annie Awards, ASIFA-Hollywood awarded Harris theWinsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement in the field of animation.[8]
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