Gene Deitch was born on August 8 1924 in Chicago, Illinois. He had an artistic bent even as a child. He would make his own newspapers using carbon paper, hectograph gelatin and mimeograph stencils, and also created his own comic strips. Gene Deitch grew up in Los Angeles. He attended Venice High School, after which he was drafted into the United States Army. He was trained as a pilot, but caught pneumonia and was subsequently given an honourable discharge. After his service he worked in the sales promotion department of CBS. While there, he sent some drawings to the jazz music magazine The Record Changer. The Record Changer published the drawings and would publish more. Gene Deitch's artwork in The Record Changer came to the attention of animation studio UPA, who hired him as an apprentice animator.
Following his apprenticeship at UPA, Gene Deitch went to work for the the Jam Handy Organization, making industrial films. He then returned to UPA as a production designer. He eventually became the creative director at UPA. At UPA he worked on some of the early Mr. Magoo cartoons, as well as a series of animated commercials for Piels Beer featuring comedy team Bob and Ray. He directed an experimental UPA short, "Howdy Doody and His Magic Hat."
It was in 1957, following Paul Terry's sale of the studio to CBS in 1956, that Gene Deitch was hired as the creative director of Terrytoons. Mr. Deitch's biggest achievement at Terrytoons would be the creation of Tom Terrific, a series of cartoons featuring the character of that name. Tom Terrific was a young boy who owned a funnel-shaped "thinking cap." He was always accompanied by his dog, Manfred the Wonder Dog, who despite being called "the Wonder Dog" tended to be a bit lazy. Tom and Manfred usually faced their archenemy Crabby Appleton, as well as such opponents as Captain Kidney Bean, Isotope Feeny the Meany, and Mr. Instant the Instant Thing King. The Tom Terrific cartoons aired on Captain Kangaroo starting in 1962 and would be seen again in the Seventies on the show. While at Terrytoons, Gene Deitch also created such characters as Clint Clobber, Gaston Le Crayon, John Doormat, and Sidney the Elephant.
In 1955, overlapping with his tenure at Terrytoons, Gene Deitch wrote and illustrated the newspaper comic strip The Real-Great Adventures of Terr'ble Thompson!, Hero of History, which centred on an intelligent boy in fantastic adventures, not unlike Tom Terrific. The strip lasted until 1956.
While the characters Gene Deitch created for Terrytoons were starkly original and imaginative, except for Tom Terrific, he clashed with many of the old guard at the studio. Terrytoons then fired Mr. Deitch in 1959. He then set up his own studio. It was from 1960 to 1963 that he produced a series of "Popeye" animated television shorts for King Features Syndicate. He directed the Academy Award winning short "Munro" (1961). From 1961 to 1962 he produced a series of new "Tom and Jerry" shorts for MGM. From 1962 to 1964 he produced a series of "Krazy Kat" cartoons for King Features Syndicate. Between 1965 and 1967 he produced a series of shorts featuring a character named Nudnik. Nudnik was a lovable loser, who could do absolutely nothing right. The first short, "Here's Nudnik" (1965), was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.
In the Sixties Gene Deitch also directed the animated featurette Alice of Wonderland in Paris (1966) and the animated television pilot Terr'ble Tessie. Like Tom Terrific before it, it was inspired by Gene Deitch's earlier comic strip, Terr'ble Thompson.
In 1969 Gene Deitch began working with Weston Woods Studios, as their leading animation director. For Weston Woods Studios, he adapted such works as Rosie's Walk, Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, and many others. He continued working with Weston Woods Studios until his retirement in 2008. Following his retirement, Gene Deitch would occasionally contribute to the animation history blog Cartoon Research.
Gene Deitch was one of the last important animators to work during the Golden Age of Animation. His work was also starkly modern. He took Terrytoons, an animation studio not known for the quality of its product for much of its history, and made it one of the most innovative animation studios of the late Fifties. After his stint at Terrytoons, he directed the Oscar winning short "Munro," which also featured a distinctly modernist work. Having emerged from UPA, much of Mr. Deitch's early work was highly stylized and very modern, but he was capable of other types of animation. His work at Weston Woods varied according to the children's book that he was adapting. The animation for Where the Wild Things are resembled the illustrations in that book, while the animation in Moon Man resembled the illustrations in that book. Gene Deitch was an innovator in animation and one possessed of considerable talent.
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