Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator best known for his 1987 Academy Award-nominated animated short Your Face.
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Biography
Bill Plympton was born in Portland, Oregon to Don and Wilda Plympton. From 1964 to 1968, he attended Portland State University, where he was a member of the film society and worked on the yearbook. In 1968, he transferred to the School of Visual Arts in New York City, New York. Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been published in The New York Times and weekly arts newspaper The Village Voice, as well as in the magazines Vogue, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Penthouse, and National Lampoon. His political cartoon strip "Plympton", which began in 1975 in the Soho Weekly news, eventually was syndicated and appeared in over 20 newspapers. His distinctive style is easily recognized. Plympton is considered the first animator to draw every frame for an animated feature film entirely by himself. Signe Baumane, also a director and animator, has been inking and painting Plympton's cells for many years. As of 2006, Plympton has created 26 animated short films and five animated features. He has also published a comic book, The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton. Plympton usually publishes a graphic novel of his feature before he releases the feature to raise money for the film. Plympton has teamed up with other independent New York City animators from and has released two DVDs of animated shorts. Avoid Eye Contact Volumes 1 & 2. His work also appeared on the 1992-1993 FOX Network comedy series The Edge. From 2001 to 2003, he teamed with Don Hertzfeldt for the touring "The Don and Bill Show" which was played throughout the United States. In 2005, Plympton's "Guard Dog", was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Also that year, Plympton animated a music video for Kanye West's "Heard 'Em Say". In 2006, Plympton created the music video for "Weird Al" Yankovic "Don't Download This Song". The actress Martha Plimpton, "a distant relative of mine"[1] served as associate producer on Plympton's animated feature Hair High (2004), doing much of the casting. The movie's voice cast included her father, Keith Carradine, and her uncle David Carradine. Plympton said in early 2007 he was working on an 80-minute feature, Idiots and Angels, that will have no dialogue.[2]
Filmography
Animated features
- The Tune (1992)
- Mondo Plympton (1997 shorts compilation)
- I Married a Strange Person! (1997)
- Mutant Aliens (2001)
- Hair High (2004)
- Idiots and Angels (scheduled for 2008)[1]
Live-action features
- J. Lyle (1993)
- Guns on the Clackamas (1995)
- Walt Curtis, the Peckerneck Poet (1997)
Animated shorts
- The Great Turn On (1968)
- Lucas the Ear of Corn (1977)
- Boomtown (1985)
- Drawing Lesson #2 (1985)
- Love in the Fast Lane (1985)
- Your Face (1987)
- One of Those Days (1988)
- How to Kiss (1989)
- 25 Ways to Quit Smoking (1989)
- Plymptoons (1990)
- Tango Schmango (1990)
- Dig My Do (1990)
- The Wise Man (1990)
- Draw (1990)
- Push Comes to Shove (1991)
- Nosehair (1994)
- Faded roads (1994)
- How to Make Love to a Woman (1995)
- Smell the Flowers (1996)
- Boney D (1996)
- Plympmania (1996)
- Sex & Violence (1997)
- The Exciting Life of a Tree (1998)
- More Sex & Violence (1998)
- Surprise Cinema (1999)
- Can't Drag Race with Jesus (2000)
- Eat (2001)
- Parking (2001)
- Twelve Tiny Christmas Tales (2001)
- Guard Dog (2004)
- The Fan & The Flower (2005)
- Guide Dog (sequel to Guard Dog, 2006)
- Shuteye Hotel (2007)
Compilations (DVD)
- Avoid Eye Contact, Vol. 1
- Avoid Eye Contact, Vol. 2
- Bill Plympton's Dirty Shorts
- Plymptoons: The Complete Early Works Of Bill Plympton (2006)
- Mondo Plympton (2007)
Music videos
- Peter Himmelman – "245 Days" (1990)
- Kanye West – "Heard 'Em Say" (2005)
- "Weird Al" Yankovic – "Don't Download This Song" (2006)
Commercials
- MTV public service announcement "Acid Rain" (1989)
- Trivial Pursuit (1990-91)
- Sugar Delight (1990)
- Nik Naks (UK) 1995
Footnotes
- ^ efilmcritic.com (Feb. 28, 2005): Interview with Bill Plympton
- ^ Animation World News (April 10, 2007): Interview with Plympton
References
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Feature films: The Tune (1992) • Mondo Plympton (1997) • I Married a Strange Person! (1997) • Mutant Aliens (2001) • Hair High (2004) • Idiots and Angels (2007?) |
