Freleng, Friz

Friz Freleng, byname of Isadore Freleng, also called I. Freleng, (born Aug. 21, 1906, Kansas City, Mo., U.S.—died May 26, 1995, Los Angeles, Calif.), American animator of more than 300 cartoons, primarily for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies film series at Warner Bros.

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Freleng joined Warner Bros. studios as head animator in 1930, after having worked for Walt Disney and the United Film Ad Service. He became a full-time director in 1933 and mastered the synchronization of movement with music for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. For these series, which were originally designed to market the studio’s music portfolio, he created or redesigned the characters known as Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester the Cat, and Tweety Pie. He won four Academy Awards for his cartoons at Warner Bros. In 1963 he cofounded DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, for which he produced and directed television and theatrical cartoons and short films. He created the character of the Pink Panther for the animated titles to the film The Pink Panther (1963) and then used the character for a series of cartoons for DePatie-Freleng. He won his fifth Academy Award for the original of that series, The Pink Phink (1964), and he continued to produce Pink Panther cartoons until his retirement in 1981.