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Eugene Merril "Gene" Deitch (August 8, 1924 - April 16, 2020) was a Czech-American illustrator, animator, and film director. He was based in Prague from the 1960s until his death in 2020. Deitch was one of the two main directors of the post Hanna-Barbera Tom and Jerry cartoon shorts, the other being Chuck Jones.

Deitch produced animated cartoons for studios such as UPA/Columbia Pictures, Terrytoons/20th Century Fox (Tom Terrific), MGM (Tom and Jerry), and Paramount Pictures (Nudnik, Popeye). He was later involved with Weston Woods, which produced audio and short films based on acclaimed children's books; he directed 37 such adaptations from 1969 to 2008.

Deitch joined Rembrandt Films in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia), moving out of the United States. With Rembrandt, in addition to Tom and Jerry and Popeye, he worked on Munro, the Nudnik shorts, and the Self-Help series.

Deitch was the father of Kim Deitch, Simon Deitch, and Seth Deitch; all three are prominent artists and writers in the underground comics and alternative comics movements. Upon his death, Deitch was survived by them and his wife, Zdenka.

Tom and Jerry[]

In 1961, after Rembrandt Films won an Oscar for the short Munro, William L. Snyder approached the head of MGM, Joseph Vogel, to collaborate with the studio to continue the Tom and Jerry franchise after William Hanna and Joseph Barbera got laid off and the animation unit closed down.[1] From 1961 to 1962, Deitch produced 13 Tom and Jerry shorts for MGM.

Deitch always cited Tom and Jerry as a bad example of "senseless violence" but appreciated the "perfect craftsmanship, the expressive animation with its exquisite timing, the endless gag inventiveness, and the characters' incredible damage survival."[1] After being assigned, he noticed that nobody took the violence of the shorts seriously, and by doing that enough, he was parodying "exaggerated human actions."[2]

Deitch mentioned that the animators from Prague were not familiar with the Tom and Jerry cartoons at the time and were not allowed to receive proper credits due to the Czechoslovak connection.[1] When Joseph Vogel was no longer at MGM, Deitch and Snyder found themselves without a contract and were not allowed to develop any more shorts.[1][2]

Despite the overall reception of the shorts being poor, Deitch affirmed those cartoons "got loud laughs in the theaters,"[3] and fans would send him letters stating that his shorts were among their favorites.[4] Following his death, he has sometimes been miscredited as the creator of Tom and Jerry.

As a voice actor, Deitch provides the vocal effects for the titular characters during his era, including the drunk laughter for Tom and Jerry in Buddies Thicker Than Water and Tom's "boink-boink-boink-boink" in Landing Stripling.[3]

References[]

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