Tex Avery

Animator

Name at birth: Frederick Bean Avery

Cartoon fans revere Avery for creating the wacky, eye-popping exaggerated style that dominated cartoons in the 1940s and 1950s. He worked at Warner Brothers from 1935-41, where he was credited with creating Daffy Duck and with developing Bugs Bunny into a wacky star. (Bugs was then taken even further by Chuck Jones and other directors.) Avery left Warner Brothers in 1941 and was hired by MGM, where he created the popular Droopy Dog, Screwy Squirrel and other slapstick characters. His fondness for exaggerated female forms later inspired the spoofy Jessica Rabbit.