Arthur Davis Passes

files/pictures/picture-35.jpgWarner Bros. cartoon director Art Davis passed away on May 9, 2000 at 3 pm. An underrated and overlooked director of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, Davis directed many Daffy Duck and Porky Pig cartoons in his tenure. He directed one classic Bugs Bunny toon in 1949 called BOWERY BUGS. Davis started his animation career in 1921 and is credited with being the industry's first in-betweener. Davis took over the Clampett unit as director in 1945. After his unit was dissolved in 1948, he continued on as an animator and story man in the Freleng unit until the studio closed. In the 1960s and ‘70s he worked on and off again for Hanna-Barbara as a story director, and then joined DePatie-Freleng, for whom he directed numerous TV shows and some of the last commercial theatrical shorts made in the U.S. From a family of animators, his brother Mannie Davis was an animator and director at Fleischer, Terrytoons and Van Beuren Studios. Family members told former assistant and long-time friend, Art Leonardi, that Davis died peacefully after humming a tune. The Neptune Society will handle the services. Davis was 94 years old.