Virgil Walter Ross

Infobox Person
name = Virgil Walter Ross
birth_date = August 8, 1907
birth_place = Watertown, New York, USA
death_date = May 15, 1996
death_place = Los Angeles, California USA
nationality = U.S.
other_names = Virgil Ross
occupation = animator

Virgil Walter Ross (August 8, 1907 – May 15, 1996) was an American artist, cartoonist, and animator best known for his work on the Warner Bros. animated shorts.

Early years

Virgil Ross (as he was usually known) spent his early years in New York state and in Michigan, but his family moved to Long Beach, California, when he was in his late teens. This state was to be his primary home for the rest of his life.

Cartooning and animation

His introduction to cartooning was in high-school, where he took a class in that art form. Early work was done for Charles B. Mintz (later Screen Gems), Ub Iwerks studio, and then on to Walter Lantz, where he began animation work. In 1935, he moved on to work for Leon Schlesinger at Warner Bros. where he spent about 30 years, first under Tex Avery's supervision, until 1942, then for Bob Clampett, and finally with Friz Freleng. His resumé also includes time spent with such firms as Filmation (where he worked on the early '70s ""), Hanna Barbera, and Marvel Comics.

He was notably self-effacing. In an interview with John Province in 1989, he is quoted as saying "I always had an eye for movement, and I think this kept me in the business a lot longer than a lot of guys, despite the fact that I really wasn't very good at drawing. When I started out in animation, you didn't have to be a good artist. I just had a little natural talent, and it's mostly just timing anyway." [ cite web
url = http://bugshardaway.blogspot.com
title = Animato!, no. 19 (1989), Province, John. "Termite Terrace Tenancy: Virgil Ross Remembers". p. 19
publisher =
accessdate = 2007-11-14]

Of the very many characters Ross animated, he is most closely associated with Bugs Bunny, but also did a great deal of work involving Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam, Tweety, and many others.

Awards

Virgil Ross received the highest awards available in his profession: the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Golden Award (1984) and the Winsor McCay Award (1988). Four of the cartoons he had animated won Oscars: "Tweety Pie" (1947), "Speedy Gonzales" (1955), "Birds Anonymous" (1957), and "Knighty Knight Bugs" (1958). [ cite web
url = http://bugshardaway.blogspot.com
title = Animato!, no. 19 (1989), Province, John. "Termite Terrace Tenancy: Virgil Ross Remembers". pp. 16-19
publisher =
accessdate = 2007-11-14] [ cite web
url = http://www.animationguild.org/_Home/GA2005/backlist_kz.htm
title = Animation Guild Golden Honorees, 1984-2005
publisher = The Animation Guild
accessdate = 2007-12-31] [cite web
url = http://movies.nytimes.com/person/109000/Virgil-Ross
title = NY TImes biography of Virgil Ross
publisher = New York Times
accessdate = 2007-11-14] [cite web
url = http://clampettstudio.com/bios/virgil_ross.htm
title = Clampett Studio biography of Virgil Ross
publisher = Clampett Studio
accessdate = 2007-11-14] [cite web
url = http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.4/articles/newsmag1.4.html
title = AWN Virgil Ross obituary
publisher = Animation World Network
accessdate = 2007-11-14]

Filmography

"At Your Service, Madame" (1935)
"Plane Dippy" (1936)
"I Love to Singa" (1936)
"Milk and Money" (1936)
"Porky's Duck Hunt" (1937)
"I Only Have Eyes for You" (1937)
"A Sunbonnet Blue" (1937)
"Uncle Tom's Bungalow" (1937)
"Cinderella Meets Fella" (1938)
"Daffy Duck in Hollywood" (1938)
"Daffy Duck & Egghead" (1938)
"Screwball Football" (1939)
"Believe It or Else" (1939)
"Wacky Wildlife" (1940)
"A Wild Hare" (1940)
"All This and Rabbit Stew" (1941)
"Porky's Preview" (1941)
"Eatin' on the Cuff or The Moth Who Came to Dinner" (1942)
"Nutty News" (1942)
"Any Bonds Today?" (1942)
"Aloha Hooey" (1942)
"Life with Feathers" (1945) (uncredited)
"Slightly Daffy" (1944) (uncredited)
"Peck Up Your Troubles" (1945)
"Hare Trigger" (1945)
"Rhapsody Rabbit" (1946)
"Racketeer Rabbit" (1946)
"Of Thee I Sting" (1946)
"Hollywood Daffy" (1946)
"Holiday for Shoestrings" (1946)
"Baseball Bugs" (1946)
"Slick Hare" (1947)
"Along Came Daffy" (1947)
"A Hare Grows in Manhattan" (1947)
"Rabbit Transit" (1947)
"Tweetie Pie" (1947) (uncredited)
"The Gay Anties" (1947)
"Kit for Cat" (1948)
"Hare Splitter" (1948)
"Bugs Bunny Rides Again" (1948)
"Buccaneer Bunny" (1948)
"I Taw a Putty Tat" (1948)
"Back Alley Oproar" (1948)
"Which Is Witch?" (1949)
"Each Dawn I Crow" (1949)
"Dough for the Do-Do" (1949) (uncredited)
"Bad Ol' Putty Tat" (1949)
"Knights Must Fall" (1949)
"Mouse Mazurka" (1949)
"Curtain Razor" (1949)
"High Diving Hare" (1949)
"Hare Do" (1949)
"Wise Quackers" (1949)
"Stooge for a Mouse" (1950)
"Canary Row" (1950)
"Bunker Hill Bunny" (1950)
"Golden Yeggs" (1950)
"All a Bir-r-r-rd" (1950)
"His Bitter Half" (1950)
"Big House Bunny" (1950)
"The Lion's Busy" (1950)
"Mutiny on the Bunny" (1950)
"Home, Tweet Home" (1950)
"Tweet Tweet Tweety" (1951)
"Ballot Box Bunny" (1951)
"Tweety's S.O.S." (1951)
"His Hare Raising Tale" (1951)
"Room and Bird" (1951)
"A Bone for a Bone" (1951)
"The Fair Haired Hare" (1951)
"Putty Tat Trouble" (1951)
"Rabbit Every Monday" (1951)
"Canned Feud" (1951)
"Hare Lift" (1952)
"Tree for Two" (1952)
"A Bird in a Guilty Cage" (1952)
"Cracked Quack" (1952)
"Ain't She Tweet" (1952)
"Little Red Rodent Hood" (1952)
"Foxy by Proxy" (1952)
"Gift Wrapped" (1952)
"14 Carrot Rabbit" (1952)
"Robot Rabbit" (1953)
"Catty Cornered" (1953)
"A Street Cat Named Sylvester" (1953)
"Tom Tom Tomcat" (1953)
"Hare Trimmed" (1953)
"Ant Pasted" (1953)
"Southern Fried Rabbit" (1953)
"Fowl Weather" (1953)
"A Mouse Divided" (1953)
"Snow Business" (1953)
"Goo Goo Goliath" (1954)
"Yankee Doodle Bugs" (1954)
"Satan's Waitin"' (1954)
"Muzzle Tough" (1954)
"Dr. Jerkyl's Hide" (1954)
"Bugs and Thugs" (1954)
"Captain Hareblower" (1954)
"I Gopher You" (1954)
"Dog Pounded" (1954)
"Sandy Claws" (1954)
"Heir-Conditioned" (1955)
"Roman Legion-Hare" (1955)
"Hyde and Hare" (1955)
"Lumber Jerks" (1955)
"Stork Naked" (1955)
"Pests for Guests" (1955)
"Pizzicato Pussycat" (1955)
"Two Crows from Tacos" (1956)
"Yankee Dood It" (1956)
"A Star Is Bored" (1956)
"Tugboat Granny" (1956)
"Napoleon Bunny-Part" (1956)
"Tree Cornered Tweety" (1956)
"Rabbitson Crusoe" (1956)
"Tweet and Sour" (1956)
"Gonzales' Tamales" (1957)
"Show Biz Bugs" (1957)
"Greedy for Tweety" (1957)
"Bugsy and Mugsy" (1957)
"Birds Anonymous" (1957)
"Piker's Peak" (1957)
"Tweety and the Beanstalk" (1957)
"Tweet Zoo" (1957)
"A Bird in a Bonnet" (1958)
"Knighty Knight Bugs" (1958)
"A Waggily Tale" (1958)
"A Pizza Tweety-Pie" (1958)
"Hare-Less Wolf" (1958)
"Tweet Dreams" (1959)
"Here Today, Gone Tamale" (1959)
"Wild and Woolly Hare" (1959)
"Tweet and Lovely" (1959)
"Mexicali Shmoes" (1959)
"Apes of Wrath" (1959)
"Trick or Tweet" (1959)
"Lighter Than Hare" (1960)
"Trip for Tat" (1960)
"The Bugs Bunny Show" (1960) TV Series
"The Flintstones" (1960) TV Series
"From Hare to Heir" (1960)
"Mouse and Garden" (1960)
"Hyde and Go Tweet" (1960)
"Person to Bunny" (1960)
"Goldimouse and the Three Cats" (1960)
"Horse Hare" (1960)
"The Last Hungry Cat" (1961)
"Prince Violent" (1961)
"The Pied Piper of Guadalupe" (1961)
"The Rebel Without Claws" (1961)
"D' Fightin' Ones" (1961)
"Shishkabugs" (1962)
"The Jet Cage" (1962)
"Honey's Money" (1962)
"Mexican Boarders" (1962)
"Crow's Feat" (1962)
"Quackodile Tears" (1962)
"The Unmentionables" (1963)
"Chili Weather" (1963)
"Philbert (Three's a Crowd)" (1963)
"Mexican Cat Dance" (1963)
"Devil's Feud Cake" (1963)
"Linus! The Lion Hearted" (1964) (2 episodes):
:"Adrift on the Rapids" (1964) TV Episode
:"Mocking Bird" (1964) TV Episode
"Señorella and the Glass Huarache" (1964)
"Hawaiian Aye Aye" (1964)
"Nuts and Volts" (1964)
"Dumb Patrol" (1964)
"Chaser on the Rocks" (1965)
"Highway Runnery" (1965)
"Hairied and Hurried" (1965)
"Just Plane Beep" (1965)
"Boulder Wham!" (1965)
"Tired and Feathered" (1965)
"The Road Runner Show" (1966) TV Series
"Clippety Clobbered" (1966)
"The Solid Tin Coyote" (1966)
"Out and Out Rout" (1966)
"Shot and Bothered" (1966)
"The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure" (1967) TV Series
"The Spy Swatter" (1967)
"The Music Mice-Tro" (1967)
"Quacker Tracker" (1967)
"The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour" (1968) TV Series
"The Archie Show" (1968) TV Series
"The Batman/Superman Hour" (1968) TV Series
"Archie's Fun House" (1970) TV Series
"Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down" (1970) (1 episode):
:"Computer Suitor" (1970) TV Episode
"Moochin' Pooch" (1971)
"Chilly's Hide-a-Way" (1971)
"Airlift a la Carte" (1971)
"The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie" (1972) (1 episode):
:"Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies" (1972) TV Episode
"Fritz the Cat" (1972)
"Star Trek: The Animated Series" (1973) TV Series
"Journey Back to Oz" (1974)
"Bobolink Pink" (1975)
"Pink Elephant" (1975)
"The Oddball Couple" (1975) TV Series
"Pink Plasma" (1975)
"Pink Da Vinci" (1975)
"The Pink Panther Laugh and the Half Hour and Half Show" (1976) TV Series
"The Sylvester & Tweety Show" (1976) TV Series
"Pink Piper" (1976)
"The Fat Albert Christmas Special" (1977) TV
"The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show" (1978) TV Series
"Pinktails for Two" (1978)
"The Pink of Bagdad" (1978)
"Pink Press" (1978)
"Cat and the Pinkstalk" (1978)
"Pink Daddy" (1978)
"Pink Lightning" (1978)
"Pink Pictures" (1978)
"The All New Pink Panther Show" (1978) TV Series
"Winds of Change" (1978)
"The Fantastic Four" (1978) TV Series
"Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales" (1979) TV
"Raggedy Ann & Andy: The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile" (1979) TV
"The Great American Chase" (1979) (segment "Bugs at Home")
"Pink in the Woods" (1979)
"Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over" (1980) TV
"The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie" (1981)
"Mighty Mouse in the Great Space Chase" (1982)
"Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales" (1982)
"Hey Good Lookin"' (1982)
"The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat" (1982) TV
"Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island" (1983)
"Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore" (1983)
"The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour" (1985) TV Series
"The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" (1985) TV Series
"The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show" (1986) TV Series
"Christmas in Tattertown" (1987) TV
"Daffy Duck's Quackbusters" (1988)
"Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends" (1990) TV Series
"That's Warner Bros.!" (1995) TV Series [cite web
url = http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0743910/
title = IMDb biography of Virgil Ross
publisher = The Internet Movie Database, IMDb
accessdate = 2007-11-14]

References