Trivia: A cel washer for Ub Iwerks at Celebrity Pictures, Chuck Jones joined the Warner Bros. animation unit in 1933, and after writing and animating numerous cartoons, became a director of the Merrie Melodies series in 1938 with The Night Watchman. Over the next two decades he established himself as perhaps America's greatest maker of cartoons -- a master at creating slapstick comedy who also had a special fondness for sudden moments of sophisticated repartee or subtle character expression. Working regularly with writer Michael Maltese, Jones brought new heights to Warners' greatest characters, particularly Daffy Duck (The Scarlet Pumpernickel, Duck Dodgers In The 24-1/2 Century, Duck Amuck) and Bugs Bunny (Hair-Raising Hare, Rabbit Fire, What's Opera, Doc?); he also created such beloved figures as the Road Runner and the Coyote (Fast and Furry-ous), Pepe Le Pew (For Scent-Imental Reasons), and the Three Bears (A Bear for Punishment). Jones further distinguished himself with numerous outstanding one-shot cartoons, including The Dover Boys, Feed the Kitty, and his classic, the singing-frog morality tale One Froggy Evening. In the mid-1960s he made several Tom & Jerry cartoons at MGM. More impressive was his work in the animated feature The Phantom Tollbooth (1969), co-directed by Abe Levitow; and his television adaptations of Rudyard Kipling's (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1975)) and Dr. Seuss' (How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1965)). In 1979 Jones created linking animation scenes for a feature-length reissue anthology of his Warners cartoons, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (aka The Great American Chase). Through the 1990s, he provided animated sequences for Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993).

Trivia: A man who made countless invaluable contributions to the development and use of animation in film, Maurice J. Noble had a strong creative hand in some of the most important and memorable works of animation in the 20th century. From his groundbreaking work in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) to his memorable creations for Warner Bros., Noble's creations have been putting smiles on the faces of children of all ages for more than 50 years.Born in Spooner, MN, Noble studied watercolors at Choiunard Art Institute in Los Angeles on a scholarship, later beginning his career as a department store designer before joining the Walt Disney Co. as a background artist for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1934. Noble's unique innovations in color design were a major part of his contributions to Disney (including the memorable pink elephant sequence in Dumbo [1941]), as well his work on more than 60 Warner Bros. cartoons, including Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century, The Bugs Bunny Show, The Road Runner Show, and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour. Noble's strong eye for composition and use of shapes were prevalent in the imaginative and humorously exaggerated Road Runner backdrops that he reinterpreted from his childhood memories of the desert. Serving during World War II in the Army Photographic Signal Corp. (which he had joined at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' request), Noble forged fruitful relationships with contemporaries Ted "Dr. Seuss" Geisel and famed Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones. After the war, he entered into a partnership with Jones that would span nearly 50 years; the duo were responsible for some of the most memorable Warner Bros. cartoons of the era. Teaming with Geisel in the 1960s, the trio created such Dr. Seuss classics as The Cat in the Hat (1972) and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966). In 1965, Noble co-directed, along with Jones, the Oscar-winning animated short The Dot and the Line.Leaving the business for the duration of the 1970s, Noble returned in the early '80s, as a layout artist on Bugs Bunny's Third Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982) and Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island (1983). Later, he contributed designs to Chuck Jones Prods. and Warner Bros., before forming Maurice Noble Prods. In May 2001, animation pioneer Maurice J. Noble died in La Crescenda, CA. He was 91.

Trivia: While few filmgoers or TV fans have ever seen June Foray, a healthy majority of them are quite familiar with her work. June Foray was one of the leading voice artists of the golden age of animation, working with both the Warner Bros. animation department and the Disney studios, and later gained her greatest fame as the voice of Rocket J. Squirrel on the classic television cartoon series The Bullwinkle Show. Born in Springfield, MA, on September 18, 1917, Foray began her career as an actress at the age of 12 -- appropriately enough, by appearing in a radio drama at a local station in Springfield directed by her voice teacher. By the time Foray was 15, she was a regular at Springfield's WBZA, and two years later she was living in Los Angeles, hoping to break into the big time as an actress. At 19, Foray was both writing and starring in a radio series for children, as Miss Makebelieve, and soon became a frequent guest performer on a number of top-rated radio shows, working with the likes of Danny Thomas and Jimmy Durante. It was in the mid-'40s that Foray finally broke into the movies, but while she scored occasional onscreen roles (most notably as High Priestess Marku in the exotic drama Sabaka), she soon discovered there was a ready market for her vocal talents in Hollywood. Her first animation voice work was for Paramount's Speaking of Animals comedy shorts, in which animated mouths were superimposed on live-action footage of animals. The Speaking of Animals shorts spawned a series of records for children, recorded with a number of other noted voice actors, including Daws Butler and Stan Freeberg. The records made her a hot property with casting agents for cartoon voice work, and she found herself working for many of the biggest names in animation. For Chuck Jones at Warner Bros., Foray provided the voice of Granny in the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, as well as the cackling Witch Hazel and dozens of other female characters. She recorded voices for several Tex Avery cartoons at MGM, as well as some Woody the Woodpecker shorts for Walter Lantz. And she made her debut at Disney as Lucifer the Cat in Cinderella. With the rise of television in the 1950s, a new market for cartoons appeared, and Foray's career kicked into high gear. She was cast as Rocky on The Bullwinkle Show, and also voiced a number of female characters on the series (most notably the villainous Natasha); she was also the voice of sweet-natured Nell Fenwick on the show's side series Dudley Do-Right. Foray stayed busy doing voice work on a number of other cartoon series as well, including Hoppity Hooper, Yogi the Bear, George of the Jungle, and the new Tom and Jerry shorts produced for TV in 1965. In addition, Foray did occasional work on The Flintstones, though she was passed over for the role of Betty Rubble after voicing her in the show's pilot. (Foray also appeared, uncredited, as the voice of Cindy Lou Who in Chuck Jones' classic animated version of How The Grinch Stole Christmas). In the 1980s and 1990s, at an age when most actresses would consider retirement, Foray was still one of Hollywood's busiest vocal talents, recording voices for everything from The Smurfs and Garfield to Duck Tales and The Simpsons. Foray also made a return to prestigious big-screen animation as the voice of Grandmother Fa in Mulan, and revisited her most famous role with vocal work in 2000's mixture of live-action and computer animation, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. In semi-retirement (though she still takes the occasional job that strikes her fancy), Foray is an active member of the International Animated Film Society, as well as the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.