Arthur Davis

Biography

Arthur Davis is among the most overlooked & forgotten members of Warner Brother's "Golden Age." He has been overshadowed by other animation directors, including Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones & Robert Clampett. A serviceable animator, Davis came to Warner Brothers with fellow animator Frank Tashlin, after working for Columbia Screen Gems. Davis continued to work for Tashlin's animation unit until 1944, when Tashlin left to pursue a career in live-action. He then worked as an animator in Bob Clampett's animation unit until 1945, when Clampett left over contract disputes with Edward Selzer. Davis completed several cartoons that were already in production, such as "The Goofy Gophers" (1947), for which the dialogue had already been recorded. Davis' cartoons can be recognized by their laid-back attitude, and their characters' predilection for wearing bow ties. While not a ground-breaker like Jones, he did manage to direct one of the funniest Bugs Bunny cartoon shorts, of Bowery Bugs (1949), a retelling of the Steve Brodie/Brooklyn Bridge legend, [just like an ode]. Among the most popular Daffy Duck cartoons, (with Elmer Fudd & an unnamed fox), he directed is What Makes Daffy Duck (1948). In the early 1950's, cost-cutting measures at Warner Brothers forced the break-up of the Davis animation unit, and he was folded into Friz Freleng's unit. After spending the rest of the 50's as an animator, Davis directed one final Warner's cartoon, "Quackodile Tears," using Freleng's unit, in 1962. Following this, Davis left Warner Brothers & after working as an animator for Walter Lantz and a story-boarder for Hanna-Barbera, he joined Freleng's production company, DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, as a director, in 1968. Once there, Davis made two of the last truly classic Pink Panther cartoon shorts, "Pinkcome Tax" & "In the Pink of the Night." But at the start of the 70's, DePatie-Freleng's cartoons suffered an overall decline in quality. Neither Davis nor any of the studio's other directors were able to bring anything special to generally uninspired stories featuring the Pink Panther and DePatie-Freleng's lower second-rate characters (Ant & Aardvark, Blue Racer & others). At the end of the 70's, DePatie-Freleng dissolved and Freleng returned to Warner's, bringing much of the staff with him. Davis worked briefly as a sequence director for TV specials featuring classic Warner's characters, then moved to Hanna-Barbera. Working once again as a sequence director on their Saturday morning and syndicated cartoon series, Davis stayed there until his retirement in the mid-late 80's. Davis passed away in 2000, at the age of 94. He was 36 days from reaching 95.