Alexander Lovy (September 2, 1913 – February 14, 1992) was an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games. Animat ...

. He spent the majority of his career as an animator and director at

Walter Lantz Productions Walter Lantz Productions was an American animation studio. It was in operation from 1928 to 1949 and then from 1950 to 1972, and was the principal supplier of animation for Universal Pictures. The studio was originally formed as Universal Carto ...

. He was later a producer at

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

, and also supervised the cartoon unit at

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

during its final days.

Life and career

Born in

Passaic, New Jersey Passaic ( or ) is a City (New Jersey), city in Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the city was List of municipalities in New Jersey, the state's 16th-most-populous ...

, Lovy's early career was spent as a comic artist at

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

. Later, he became an animator at the Lantz studio in the late 1930s. His first credit as a director was for ''Feed the Kitty'' in 1938. Studio head Walter Lantz was taking a hiatus from directing at this time, this gave Lovy an opportunity to direct many of the studio's shorts in the 1938–1940 period. He stepped down to become an animator in 1940 after Lantz reverted to being director. However, he continued to play an important role in the production of the shorts, and stepped up to being the studio's lead director of

Woody Woodpecker Woody Woodpecker is a cartoon character that appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz Productions, Walter Lantz Studio and Universal Animation Studios, Universal Animation Studio and distributed by Universal Pictures sinc ...

shorts when Lantz retired from directing in 1942. The following year, however, Lovy was drafted into the US Navy and left the studio;

Shamus Culhane James H. "Shamus" Culhane (November 12, 1908 – February 2, 1996) was an American animator, film director, and film producer. He is best known for his work in the Golden age of American animation. Career Shamus Culhane worked for a number of ...

in the meantime replaced Lovy. After the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Lovy worked briefly for

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

' cartoon unit,

Screen Gems Screen Gems is an American film production company owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate, Sony Group Corporation. ''Screen Gems'' has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the de ...

, directing five shorts before it was closed down, and in 1955 made his return to the Lantz studio, initially to finish some cartoons that

Tex Avery Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery (; February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, animation director, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of America ...

had produced during a brief stint as director there. He carried on directing at the Lantz studio until the end of the decade, at which point he moved over to Hanna-Barbera. There, he worked mainly as a producer and storyboard artist, and often supervised the studio's voice recording sessions. In 1967, Lovy moved to the newly re-opened Warner Bros. cartoon studio, where he created the characters Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse,Toonopedia: Merlin the Magic Mouse
in addition to directing cartoons with classic characters

Daffy Duck Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character created by animators Tex Avery and Bob Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions. Styled as an anthropomorphic black duck, he has appeared in cartoon series such as ''Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Me ...

and Speedy Gonzales. After just over a year at Warner Bros., Lovy returned to Hanna-Barbera, and worked there in various capacities until shortly before his death on Valentine's Day, 1992. According to Walter Lantz, Lovy was

ambidextrous Ambidexterity is the ability to use both the right and left hand equally well. When referring to objects, the term indicates that the object is equally suitable for right-handed and left-handed people. When referring to humans, it indicates that ...

, and could draw two storyboards at the same time, one with each hand.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lovy, Alex 1913 births 1992 deaths Animators from New Jersey American comics artists American television directors American storyboard artists American voice directors American male screenwriters American male television writers American television writers Golden Age comics creators Hanna-Barbera people People from Passaic, New Jersey Walter Lantz Productions people 20th-century American screenwriters Television producers from New Jersey