Karyl Ross "Ken" Harris (July 31, 1898 – March 24, 1982) 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 ...

best known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons under the supervision of director

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

Life and career

Ken Harris was born in

Tulare County, California Tulare County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 473,117. The county seat is Visalia. The county is named for Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake west of the Great La ...

. He finished his education at an unknown college in

Stockton, New Jersey Stockton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, Hunterdon County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough sits on the Delaware River at the western end of Amwell Valley. As of the 2020 United States census, the ...

. Harris started as a race car builder and driver with his brother, who had a garage. Harris and his brother had to spend $4,000 ($ 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 a Pontiac 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 the ''

Los Angeles Herald Examiner The ''Los Angeles Herald Examiner'' was a major Los Angeles daily newspaper, published in the afternoon from Monday to Friday and in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays. It was part of the Hearst Corporation, Hearst syndicate. It was formed w ...

'', from 1927 to around 1930, when he joined the ill-fated Romer Grey studio, owned by the son of successful Western author

Zane Grey Pearl Zane Grey (January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939) was an American author and dentist. He is known for his popular adventure novels and stories associated with the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier ...

. Following the completion of at least two cartoons, the Grey studio, failing to find a distributor, closed in 1931. Harris finally ended up at Leon Schlesinger Productions within the

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (; August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons ...

unit, then producing the higher-budgeted ''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...

'' shorts. Upon Freleng's departure at the end of 1937, Harris was relocated into the

Frank Tashlin Frank Tashlin (born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972), also known as Tish Tash and Frank Tash, was an American animator and filmmaker. He was best known for his work on the ''Looney Tunes'' and ''Merrie Melodies'' ...

unit. Several months later, Tashlin himself left and the unit was taken over by

, beginning an association between Jones and Harris that lasted until 1962, the longest time an animator spent with a director at the studio. Harris briefly animated for the UPA short ''The Brotherhood of Man''. 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 short '' The Dover Boys'', was a caricature of Harris. 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 for

on the titles of ''

The Pink Panther ''The Pink Panther'' is an American media franchise primarily focusing on a series of comedy-mystery films featuring an inept French police detective, Inspector Clouseau, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. The franchise began with the release of the fil ...

'' (1963), then for

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 ...

on their first feature film '' Hey There It's Yogi Bear!'' (1964), then rejoined Jones at

MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...

for three years. After work as an animator on '' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' (1966) — directed by Jones, a longtime friend of Dr. Seuss — Harris came to the studio of independent animator Richard Williams in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1967, in which he became Williams' simultaneous mentor and employee. Harris's credits with him included ''

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. It recounts the ...

'' (1971) — as animator of Ebenezer Scrooge — the opening titles of '' The Return of the Pink Panther'' (1975), and the still-unfinished animated feature '' The Thief and the Cobbler'' (animating the eponymous thief, whose body language and facial expressions are highly reminiscent of Harris's earlier work animating Wile E. Coyote for Jones). Among the many scenes Harris animated: Mama Bear doing an outrageous

tap dance Tap dance (or tap) is a form of dance that uses the sounds of tap shoes striking the floor as a form of percussion; it is often accompanied by music. Tap dancing can also be performed with no musical accompaniment; the sound of the taps is its ow ...

(which Chuck Jones, who directed the cartoon, and who was Harris' longtime collaborator, has said was inspired by

Michael Maltese Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 – February 22, 1981) was an American screenwriter and storyboard artist for classic animated cartoon shorts. He is best known for working in the 1950s on a series of '' Merrie Melodies'' cartoons with director ...

, "who could really dance that way") in '' A Bear for Punishment''; Wile E. Coyote consuming earthquake pills in '' Hopalong Casualty''; and the lengthy dance sequence in '' What's Opera, Doc?''. Harris died on March 24, 1982, from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

in Woodland, California, at 83 years of age.

Awards

At the 1981 Annie Awards, ASIFA-Hollywood awarded Harris the Winsor McCay Award for lifetime achievement in the field of animation.

References

External links

*
Official site of Ken Harris
Retrieved December 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Ken 1898 births 1982 deaths American animated film directors American humorists Deaths from Parkinson's disease in California People from Tulare County, California Animators from Los Angeles Warner Bros. Cartoons people