Bill Melendez, 1916-2008
Bill Melendez, the speaking voice of Snoopy and the man as much a part of bringing Peanuts to television as Charles Schulz, has died:
Animator, director and producer Jose Cuautemoc “Bill” Melendez, whose television programs and theatrical films featuring Charles Schulz’s “Peanuts” characters earned four Emmy Awards, an Oscar nomination and two Peabody Awards, died Tuesday at St. John’s hospital in Santa Monica, according to publicist Amy Goldsmith. He was 91.
Melendez’s career extended over nearly seven decades, including stints at Walt Disney Studios, Leon Schlesinger Cartoons (which later was sold to Warner Bros.), United Productions of America and Playhouse Pictures. In 1964, he established Bill Melendez Productions, where he created his best-known works, including the holiday classic “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (1965). Over the years, his films were honored with two additional prime-time Emmys, three National Cartoonist Society awards, a Clio Award and 150 awards for commercials. [...]
Melendez supplied Snoopy’s laughs, sobs and howls. Schulz insisted that as a dog, Snoopy couldn’t talk. Melendez experimented with making sounds that suggested a voice and speeding them up on tape — assuming a professional actor would do a final recording. But time ran short, and Melendez ended up serving as Snoopy’s voice in 63 subsequent half-hour specials, five one-hour specials, the Saturday morning TV show and four feature films. In his later years, Melendez chuckled over the fact that he received residuals for his vocal performances. [...]
But while he was famous for his Peanuts specials, they weren’t the only animation to receive the Melendez touch:
Born in Sonora, Mexico, Nov. 15, 1916, Melendez moved with his family to Arizona in 1928, then to Los Angeles, where he attended the Chouinard Art Institute. He was one of the few Latinos working in animation when he began his career at Walt Disney Studios in 1939, contributing to the features “Pinocchio,” “Fantasia,” “Bambi” and “Dumbo,” as well as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck shorts.
Melendez was an active participant in the bitterly fought strike that led to the unionization of the Disney artists in 1941, after which he moved to Schlesinger Cartoons, animating Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and other classic Warner Bros. characters.
In 1948, Melendez joined United Productions of America and was delighted by the company’s innovative approach to animation. “The animation we were doing was not limited, but stylized,” he recalled in a 1986 interview. “When you analyze Chaplin’s shorts, you realize people don’t move that way — he stylized his movements. We were going to do the same thing for animation. We were going to animate the work of Cobean, Steinberg — all the great cartoonists of the moment — and move them as the designs dictated.”
After animating numerous UPA shorts, including the Oscar-winning “Gerald McBoing-Boing” (1951), Melendez served as a director and producer on more than 1,000 commercials for UPA, Playhouse Pictures and John Sutherland Productions. In 1959, he directed the first animation of the “Peanuts” characters for a series of commercials advertising the Ford Falcon.
He was married for sixty-eight years (yes, really! In a row! To the same woman!) to his wife Helen and had two sons, six grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren.
This makes me very sad, as sad as I was when Charles Schulz died. Bill was truly an icon in the business…they don’t make them like this any more. This is the third memorial post I’ve made this week…it seems to come in threes, so maybe it’s done for a while.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his friends and family.
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Great article and info, thanks for posting it. A big heavy Snoopy-sigh goes out.
This is a loss to us Boomers who grew up with Peanuts, and for anyone else who’s been lucky enough to see the things that his creativity touched. All the people who made the 20th Century wonderful are slowly leaving us.
Comment by Jannah — September 5, 2008 @ 3:35 pm
I loved the Peanuts specials. They were already a classic when I was little. The Christmas special was a favorite in our house.
This just sucks… so many cool people have died this year. It’s not right that so many amazing, wonderful people have passed away.
BTW, if I am ever lucky enough to find and marry someone whom I love, cherish and respect, someone who will return those sentiments and spend the next sixty eight years of my life with them, then I will count my blessings because we NEED MORE of this kind of love in the world!
Comment by A Watcher — September 5, 2008 @ 5:49 pm