Abraham Levitow (July 2, 1922 – May 8, 1975) was an American

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple 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 ...

who worked at

Warner Bros. Cartoons Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was ...

, UPA and MGM Animation/Visual Arts. He is best known for his work under

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, pro ...

' direction.

Career

Levitow was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to William Levitow and Sarah Schlafmitz. He began working as an in-betweener and assistant animator at

in 1940 at the age of 17. Levitow briefly left Warner Brothers when he was drafted during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

working on training films, in which during that time he met

Stan Lee Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...

and became close friends with him. Levitow returned to the studio, working as an assistant animator for Ken Harris under the

unit, and he was later promoted to animator in 1950 and would receive his first animations credit in 1953 for the cartoon

Wild Over You ''Wild Over You'' is a 1953 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' short animated film directed by Chuck Jones. The short was released on July 11, 1953, and stars Pepé Le Pew. The short uses the standard formula outlined in ''For Scent-imental Reasons'' ...

. He worked steadily for Jones over the remainder of the 1950s, and directed several cartoons for release in 1959, including the Pepé Le Pew cartoon "Really Scent". While working under Jones, he made characters' joints more angular than most other animators. Those characters with fur (

Wile E. Coyote Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' series of animated cartoons, first appearing in 1949 in the theatrical cartoon short '' Fast and Furry-ous''. In each episode, ...

, for example) looked especially shaggy in Levitow's scenes. Levitow joined UPA in 1958 to work on the Mr. Magoo feature ''

1001 Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' ( ar, أَلْفُ لَيْلَةٍ وَلَيْلَةٌ, italic=yes, ) is a collection of Middle Eastern folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the ''Arabian ...

'', staying behind even after the studio was sold to Henry G. Saperstein. In 1962, he directed the first feature-length animated television special, '' Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol''. 1962 also saw the release of his theatrical feature '' Gay Purr-ee'', with the voices of

Robert Goulet Robert Gérard Goulet (November 26, 1933 October 30, 2007) was an American and Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Canad ...

Judy Garland Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm; June 10, 1922June 22, 1969) was an American actress and singer. While critically acclaimed for many different roles throughout her career, she is widely known for playing the part of Dorothy Gale in '' The ...

, and others. By 1962, he was working with Jones at MGM as an animator and a director in the

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series centers on the ...

series. He co-directed the feature film ''

The Phantom Tollbooth ''The Phantom Tollbooth'' is a children's fantasy adventure novel written by Norton Juster, with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, first published in 1961. The story follows a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollboo ...

'' with Chuck Jones at MGM. In addition, he worked with UPA on more Mr. Magoo cartoons, including ''

The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo ''The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo'' is an American animated television series produced by United Productions of America that aired for one season on NBC from September 19, 1964 to April 24, 1965. The television series was based on the original ...

'', and also collaborated with Chuck again on the program

Curiosity Shop ''Curiosity Shop'' is an American children's educational television program produced by ABC. The show was executive produced by veteran Looney Tunes director/animator Chuck Jones, sponsored by the Kellogg's cereal company and created as a comme ...

through Format Films. He animated on the Chuck Jones-produced ''

A Christmas Carol ''A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas'', commonly known as ''A Christmas Carol'', is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall in 1843 and illustrated by John Leech. ''A Christmas ...

'', directed by Richard Williams at Williams' London studio in 1971. In 1972, he and producer Dave Hanson founded Levitow/Hanson Films. The studio produced several animated pieces for ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000 ...

'', the most notable being Willie Wimple. His last completed project was ''B.C.: The First Thanksgiving'', which aired in November of 1973. At the time of his death on May 8, 1975, Levitow was in line to direct the animated feature film '' Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure''. The project was taken over by Richard Williams when Levitow died from a

bone tumor A bone tumor is an abnormal growth of tissue in bone, traditionally classified as noncancerous (benign) or cancerous (malignant). Cancerous bone tumors usually originate from a cancer in another part of the body such as from lung, breast, thyro ...

during pre-production at the age of 52.

References

External links

*
Official website

Abe and Charlotte Levitow collection
Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences {{DEFAULTSORT:Levitow, Abe Animators from California American animated film directors 1922 births 1975 deaths Artists from Los Angeles American military personnel of World War II Warner Bros. Cartoons directors Film directors from Los Angeles