Michael Maltese (born February 6, 1908 in New York City, died February 22, 1981) was a long-time storyboard artist and screenwriter for classic animated cartoon shorts. In 1941, Maltese was hired by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which three years later became Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. (Maltese had actually appeared on camera in a 1940 Porky Pig cartoon as a guard at the Warner Brothers entrance gate, who winds up chasing Porky around the Warner's lot, entitled You Ought to Be in Pictures.). Starting in the late 1940s, he worked exclusively with director Chuck Jones, and the two of them collaborated on classic cartoons like the Academy Award winning For Scent-imental Reasons (1949) and the animated public health documentary, So Much For So Little which won that same year for "Best Documentary Short Subject". He was also said to be the voice of the "short, fat" character in Wackiki Wabbit. Some of his earlier works included Bear Feat (1949), The Rabbit of Seville (1950), and Rabbit Fire (1951). Some of his best known cartoons are Feed the Kitty (1952), Beep, Beep (1952), Rabbit Seasoning (1952), Don't Give up the Sheep (1953), Duck Amuck (1953), Bully for Bugs (1953), Bewitched Bunny (1954), From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1954), and Beanstalk Bunny (1955). He also worked on One Froggy Evening (1955), the first appearance of future Warner Brothers mascot Michigan J. Frog. Some of his later cartoons were Ali Baba Bunny (1957), Robin Hood Daffy (1958) and the seminal What's Opera, Doc? (1957) and Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953). Maltese also collaborated with Jones on the 1960s TV cartoon show Tom and Jerry. From 1958 until 1970, he worked at Hanna-Barbera Productions on television cartoons such as The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, and The Jetsons. Maltese also did scripts for comic books published by Western Publishing, including for many of the same Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbera characters whose animated exploits he scripted.
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Maltese, Michael |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Maltese, Mike |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | cartoon writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 6, 1908 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States of America |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 22, 1981 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
