Jack Hannah

Jack Hannah January 5 1913 June 11 1994 was an animator writer and director of animated shortsHe began his career at the Walt Disney Studios as an animator in the short Modern Inventions released on May 29 1937 After thirteen films in that capacity he was assigned to the story department writing cartoon short continuities beginning withDonalds Nephews released on April 15 1938 He received writing credit on 21 Disney cartoon shortsIn 1942 he collaborated with Carl Barks on the first two comic books Barks worked on Pluto Saves the Ship and Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold Hannah in subsequent years did a handful of other Donald Duck comic book stories but unlike Barks he stayed at the studio and eventually was given a chance to be a director The short Donalds Off Day released on December 8 1944 was the first of 94 films he would direct These include most of the shorts featuring Donald Duck in the postwar era along with all starring Chip n Dale and Humphrey the Bear he also directed some shorts starring Goofy Mickey Mouse Pluto and some minor Walt Disney characters After Disney stopped producing animated shorts Hannah did 14 episodes of the Walt Disney anthology television series composed of footage from the classic cartoons along with new linking material and fulfilled his ambition to direct liveaction by handling Walt Disneys introductions for the episodes Hannah hoped to segue into a career in liveaction but Walt had me pegged as an animation director so he balked at the suggestion We had a few heated discussions and I became aware that I had come to an impasse He then went to the Walter Lantz Studio and directed a number of films featuring Woody Woodpecker and some minor characters Besides directing shorts Hannah also was Assistant Director for the TV series The Woody Woodpecker Show which started airing on October 3 1957 I did more or less the same thing that I did with Walt Disney in directing live action except Lantz was better at taking direction His last directing effort was the short Charlies MotherInLaw released on April 16 1963 He retired shortly thereafterHannah was one of the cofounders along with T Hee of the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the ArtsHannah was honored as a Disney Legend in 1992 As Carl Barks is credited with creating the personality of Donald Ducks comic book version Jack Hannah is credited with developing if not creating the personality of the animated version It is for this reason Disney historian Jim Korkis has dubbed him Donald Ducks Other DaddyHannah died in 1994 aged 81