Arthur Davis Director - Born June 14, 1905 in Yonkers, New York, USA

Died May 9, 2000 in Sunnyvale, California, USA

Mini Bio (1) 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.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: mike.konczewski@itb.mckhboc.com

Spouse Rae Kessler (1928 - 1978) her death

Trivia (1) Brother of Mannie Davis

Arthur "Art" Davidavitch (June 14, 1905 – May 9, 2000) was an American animator and a director for Warner Brothers' Termite Terrace cartoon studio.

Early life Davis was born in Yonkers, New York to Hungarian parents. He is the younger brother of animator Mannie Davis.

Career Davis got his start at a young age at the New York studio of Max Fleischer, and is reputed to have been the first in-betweener in the animation industry. Another of his distinctions was that he tapped out the famous "bouncing ball" of the "Follow the Bouncing Ball" cartoons of the 1920s. While one of the Fleischer brothers played the ukulele, Davis would keep time with a wooden stick with a white thumbtack on the end, which was photographed and incorporated into the films as the actual moving ball. Later he was an animator for the Charles Mintz studio. While there, he helped create and develop Toby the Pup and Scrappy with fellow animators Dick Huemer and Sid Marcus. Davis would eventually be promoted to director and remained at the studio even after it became Screen Gems in 1940.

In 1942, Davis left Screen Gems along with Frank Tashlin for Warner Bros. Davis worked as an animator for Tashlin's department until late 1944 when it was assumed by Robert McKimson. Later in May 1945, when Bob Clampett left to start his own studio, Davis took over Clampett's unit. Davis finished a few of Clampett's planned cartoons, including "The Goofy Gophers" and "Bacall to Arms".

Davis directed a number of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, with a tone somewhere between those of Clampett and McKimson. He had a distinctive characteristic visual style, which can be seen as far back as Davis' Columbia shorts, in which the characters move from the foreground to the background, as well as from side to side, using all axes of the animation field. His department was shut down only three years later in 1949 when Warners was having a budget problem. Davis was then taken into Friz Freleng's unit, and served as one of Freleng's key animators for many years.

In 1962, thirteen years after his unit had been shut down, Davis directed a cartoon for Warners again using Freleng's unit. (There were several shorts released around this time, from not only Freleng's unit but Chuck Jones' as well, where the direction was credited to varying subordinates.) This cartoon, "Quackodile Tears", was also his last Warner Brothers short. After the studio closed in 1963, Davis went to Walter Lantz Productions as an animator. He left Lantz in 1965 to work briefly for Hanna-Barbera Productions, before moving over to DePatie-Freleng Enterprises to direct Pink Panther shorts and other cartoon series.

Outliving most of his peers, Davis died on May 9, 2000, aged 94 in Sunnyvale, California.

Personal Life Married Spouse(s) Rae Kessler (m. 1928; her death 1978)