| Bill Melendez |
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Melendez, a native of the Mexican town of Hermosillo , was educated in Douglas, Arizona and Los Angeles – the latter being the location of California Institute Of The Arts (then known as the Chouinard Arts Institute). In 1938 , Melendez was hired by Walt Disney to work on animated short films and feature-length films such as '' Bambi '', '' Fantasia '', and '' Dumbo ''. Three years later, he joined Leon Schlesinger 's team at the Warner Brothers studios, where, as a member of the Bob Clampett and Art Davis units, he animated on a number of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck shorts. UPA put him on their payroll in 1948 to work on many Television commercials, as well as the '' Gerald McBoing-Boing '' and '' Madeleine '' shorts. After a decade at two smaller production houses, Melendez founded his own production company in 1964 . Bill Melendez Productions helped produce the annually broadcast Christmas special '' A Charlie Brown Christmas '', for which he won an Emmy Award and the George Foster Peabody Award despite having to work on short notice and with a tight budget. Melendez performed the voice of Snoopy, who normally in the specials does not talk." Melendez has gone on to do over 75 half-hour '' Peanuts '' specials, including the 1989 miniseries '' This Is America, Charlie Brown '', as well as four feature-length motion pictures – all with partner Lee Mendelson . Amongst the other comic strip characters he has animated are Cathy and Garfield . In addition to animation, Melendez was once a faculty member at the University Of Southern California 's Cinema Arts Department. He currently resides in Los Angeles. |
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