Chuck Jones

Chuck Jones was the most famous director of cartoons for the legendary Warner Brothers animation studios. Along with animators like Tex Avery, Jones developed Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, and other wacky cartoon characters. After Warner Brothers closed its animation division in 1962, Jones worked on Tom and Jerry cartoons and many other projects including the hit TV version of the Dr. Seuss book How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966). In the 1980s and 1990s Warners cartoons enjoyed renewed popularity and Jones became a revered guru from animation's first golden age. Jones died in February of 2002 at his home in Corona del Mar, California, where he had been suffering from congestive heart failure.

Extra credit: Jones was given an honorary Academy Award in 1996 for his lifetime of work... One of Jones's more whimsical characters was Michigan J. Frog.