Bill Melendez

José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Melendez (November 15, 1916 – September 2, 2008) was a Mexican-American animator, director, producer, and voice actor. Melendez was known for working on the Peanuts animated specials, as well as providing the voices of Snoopy and Woodstock. Before Peanuts, he previously worked as an animator for Walt Disney Productions, Warner Bros. Cartoons, and UPA.

In a career spanning over 60 years, he won six Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for thirteen more. In addition, he was nominated for an Oscar and five Grammy Awards. The two Peanuts specials, A Charlie Brown Christmas and What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?, which he directed, were each honored with a Peabody Award.

Early life A native of Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, Melendez was educated in American public schools in Douglas, Arizona. Following the 1941 Disney strike, Melendez was hired by Leon Schlesinger Productions, later known as Warner Bros. Cartoons, where he served as animator on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series. He worked in Bob Clampett's unit, first as an assistant animator for Rod Scribner, and then as a full animator starting with Wagon Heels. After Clampett's departure in 1945, the unit was given to Arthur Davis. When the number of animation units at Warner Bros. was reduced from four to three in 1947, Melendez along with Emery Hawkins moved to Robert McKimson's unit for some time.

After animating several shorts for McKimson, Melendez was fired by producer Edward Selzer. Afterwards, he moved over to United Productions of America (UPA), where he animated on cartoons such as Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950). Melendez also produced and directed thousands of television commercials, first at UPA, then John Sutherland Productions and Playhouse Pictures. In 1963, Melendez founded his own studio in the basement of his Hollywood home. , Bill Melendez Productions is still active and is run by his son Steven C. Melendez. In addition to animation, Melendez was once a faculty member at the University of Southern California's Cinema Arts Department.

Melendez would also be referenced in the 1961 Looney Tunes short The Pied Piper of Guadalupe, where his name was used for a music instructor for Sylvester to learn how to play the flute. At that point, Melendez has been away from Warner Bros. for ten years.

Peanuts franchise (1959–2006) In 1959, Melendez was hired to do some animated television commercials featuring characters from the comic strip Peanuts for the Ford Motor Company. These animations were seen by documentary producer Lee Mendelson, and Mendelson hired Melendez to do some interstitial animations for a film he was producing about the comic strip entitled A Boy Named Charlie Brown.

Melendez was the only person Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz trusted to turn his popular comic creations into television specials. He and his studio worked on every single television special and direct-to-video film for the Peanuts gang and Melendez directed the majority of them. He provided the vocal effects for Snoopy and Woodstock in every single production, voice acting the characters in the studio by uttering gibberish, and the voices were mechanically sped up at different speeds to represent the two different characters, although some later specials had Snoopy speaking in a clear voice, reflecting how he would be thinking to himself in the comics.

According to an article in The New York Times published shortly after his death, Melendez did not intend to do voice acting for the two characters. "Schulz would not countenance the idea of a beagle uttering English dialogue, Mr. Melendez recited gibberish into a tape recorder, sped it up and put the result on the soundtrack." He also directed, did the animation for, and provided voice acting in the first four Peanuts theatrical films, A Boy Named Charlie Brown (1969), Snoopy Come Home (1972), Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown (1977), and Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (1980), as well as the video games Get Ready for School, Charlie Brown! (1995) and Snoopy's Campfire Stories (1996).

The last Peanuts-related production he worked on was He's a Bully, Charlie Brown (2006). Melendez and Lee Mendelson, who also worked on the Peanuts specials, films, and TV shows, formed their own production team and did other animated specials. They were responsible for the first two Garfield animated specials, Here Comes Garfield (1982) and Garfield on the Town (1983), as well as Frosty Returns (1992), the pseudo-sequel to Rankin/Bass' Frosty the Snowman (1969).

National Student Film Institute During the 1980s and 1990s Melendez served on the advisory board of the National Student Film Institute.

Death Melendez died at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California, on September 2, 2008, at the age of 91. No cause of his death was made public, but he had been in declining health after a fall a year earlier. This makes him the only member of the film's cast to have been involved in a previous Peanuts project, save for Kristin Chenoweth, who won a Tony Award for her performance as Sally Brown in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown on Broadway. Melendez also has archival recordings on the film's game, Snoopy's Grand Adventure.

Melendez Films Melendez Films (formerly Bill Melendez Productions and Melendez Features, Inc.) is a film animation studio. It was founded in 1962 by Steven C. Melendez, the son of Bill. The studio produced the ambitious animated feature film Dick Deadeye, based on the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1979 the company produced a one-and-a-half-hour television special based on the C.S. Lewis classic book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the film subsequently won two Emmy Awards for "best animated film" and "script adaptation". Melendez Films has also produced many series for television including "Fred Basset" and "The Perishers", as well as educational mini films like Molly and the Skywalkerz for PBS, which were not rebroadcast for a couple of decades and did not surface on home media until after the 1998 VHS debut.

The company continues to create commercials in France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece and Sweden as well as the UK and the U.S. working for clients such as Scandinavian Airlines, Schick, British Rail, Colgate, Ferrero, and the British Government.

Mendelson/Melendez Productions Mendelson/Melendez Productions (sometimes credited as Mendelson-Melendez Productions and formerly as Lee Mendelson/Bill Melendez Productions or Lee Mendelson Film Productions) was an American animation studio founded in 1965 and was active until Melendez's death in 2006. It was mostly famous for its Peanuts animated specials.

Filmography Films Year FilmAnimatorProducer Director Actor Role Notes 1940 Pinocchio Assistant animatorFantasia 1941 Dumbo 1942 Bambi 1943 The Flying Jalopy A Corny Concerto Assistant animatorFalling Hare An Itch in Time 1945 Draftee Daffy Wagon Heels The Bashful Buzzard 1946 Book Revue Baby Bottleneck Kitty Kornered The Great Piggy Bank Robbery The Big Snooze 1947 Goofy Gophers The Foxy Duckling Doggone Cats Mexican Joyride Catch as Cats Can 1948 Two Gophers from Texas What Makes Daffy Duck A Hick a Slick and a Chick Nothing But the Tooth Bone Sweet Bone The Rattled Rooster Dough Ray Me-ow The Pest That Came to Dinner Odor of the Day The Stupor Salesman Riff Raffy Daffy 1949 Holiday for Drumsticks Porky Chops Bowery Bugs Bye, Bye Bluebeard A Ham in a Role 1950 Punchy de Leon Boobs in the Woods Spellbound Hound The Leghorn Blows at Midnight The Miner's Daughter An Egg Scramble What's Up Doc? It's Hummer Time Giddyap Trouble Indemnity A Fractured Leghorn Pop 'im Pop! Gerald McBoing-Boing Bushy Hare Dog Collared Albert in Blunderland 1951 Hare We Go Bungled Bungalow A Fox in a Fix Corn Plastered Georgie and the Dragon The Wonder Gloves 1952 The Oompahs Willie the Kid Madeline 1953 Little Boy with a Big Horn Christopher Crumpet Gerald McBoing-Boing's Symphony 1954 Ballet-Oop It's Everybody's Business 1957 Energetically Yours 1963 It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1969 A Boy Named Charlie Brown Snoopy 1970 The Rainbow Bear 1972 Snoopy Come Home Snoopy, Woodstock 1975 Dick Deadeye, or Duty Done Escape to Witch Mountain 1977 Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock 1978 Tooth Brushing Snoopy 1980 Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Come Back!!) Snoopy, Woodstock 1985 Television film for PBS, later, VHS video 1992 Cool World 2015 The Peanuts Movie Snoopy, Woodstock archival recordings

Television Year FilmAnimatorProducer Director Actor Role Notes 1956 The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show 1 episode: The Election/The Fifty-First Dragon/Twirlinger Twins in the Ballet Lesson 1960 The Bugs Bunny Show classic cartoons 1963 A Boy Named Charlie Brown Snoopy 1965 A Charlie Brown Christmas Snoopy 1966 Charlie Brown's All Stars! Snoopy It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Snoopy 1967 You're in Love, Charlie Brown Snoopy 1968 He's Your Dog, Charlie Brown Snoopy The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour classic cartoons 1969 Turn-On 1 episodeIt Was a Short Summer, Charlie Brown Snoopy 1971 Play It Again, Charlie Brown Snoopy Babar Comes to America 1972 You're Not Elected, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock 1973 There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown Snoopy A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Snoopy, Woodstock 1974 It's a Mystery, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus 1975 Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock You're a Good Sport, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock 1976 It's Arbor Day, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock The Sylvester & Tweety Show classic cartoons1977It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock 1978 What a Nightmare, Charlie Brown! Snoopy 1979 You're the Greatest, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Also credited for story adaptation 1980 She's a Good Skate, Charlie Brown Snoopy Life Is a Circus, Charlie Brown Snoopy 1981 It's Magic, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock Someday You'll Find Her, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock No Man's Valley 1982A Charlie Brown Celebration Snoopy, Woodstock Here Comes Garfield 1983 Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? Snoopy, Woodstock It's an Adventure, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown? Snoopy, Woodstock Garfield on the Town 1983–1985 The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show Snoopy, Woodstock 1984 It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock 1985 Snoopy's Getting Married, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock, Spike The Romance of Betty Boop It's Your 20th Television Anniversary, Charlie Brown Snoopy You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown Snoopy (non-speaking), Woodstock 1986 Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! Snoopy, Woodstock 1987 Cathy 1988 Snoopy: The Musical Snoopy (non-speaking), Woodstock It's the Girl in the Red Truck, Charlie Brown Spike Cathy's Last Resort 1988–1989 This Is America, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock Also credited as writer for 4 episodes 1989 Cathy's Valentine 1990 You Don't Look 40, Charlie Brown Himself Why, Charlie Brown, Why? Snoopy, Woodstock Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends classic cartoons 1991 Snoopy's Reunion Snoopy, Snoopy's Siblings 1992 It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock Frosty Returns 1994 You're in the Super Bowl, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock 1995 That's Warner Bros.! classic cartoons 1997 It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock 2000 Here's to You, Charlie Brown: 50 Great Years Snoopy, Woodstock It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown Snoopy 2002 A Charlie Brown Valentine Snoopy Charlie Brown's Christmas Tales Snoopy, Woodstock 2003 Lucy Must Be Traded, Charlie Brown Snoopy I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock, Spike 2006 He's a Bully, Charlie Brown Snoopy, Woodstock 2008 Peanuts Motion Comics Snoopy archival recordings

Video games Year GameAnimatorProducer Director Actor Role Notes 1995 Get Ready for School, Charlie Brown! Snoopy, Woodstock 1996 Snoopy's Campfire Stories Snoopy, Woodstock 2015 The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy's Grand Adventure Snoopy, Woodstock archival recordings