Tex Avery Biography

Cartoon fans revere Tex Avery for creating the wacky, eye-popping exaggerated style that dominated cartoons in the 1940s and 1950s as a distinct contrast to the animation of Walt Disney.

Avery is best known for his work with MGM’s studio, where he directed cartoons from 1942 until 1953.

He’d 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 was known for his fast-paced cartoons that were loaded with sight-gags and perspectives you could only do with animation.

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 such as that in Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) later inspired the spoofy animated character Jessica Rabbit.

After being fired from MGM, Avery continued kicking around the animation business, working on commercials and with other, smaller animation studios until his death from lung cancer in 1980.