Lloyd Vaughan

Though his primary ambition was to work for Walt Disney, he had obtained no formal qualifications from any art college. He thought himself already as too old (at the age of 26) to apply and when he finally did, his drawings were rejected. Moreover, he had lost the sight in his right eye before even starting his career as an animator. Lloyd Lincoln Vaughan remained, nonetheless, undeterred to break into his chosen field after treading water respectively as a shipping clerk, ticket agent and tobacconist. He was finally hired by Leon Schlesinger for the princely salary of $6 a week. Schlesinger's company soon fell under the Warner Brothers umbrella and Vaughan -- his salary now doubled -- joined the unit of Chuck Jones at Looney Tunes as an "inbetweener" (somebody who provides drawings which complete the gaps left by the main animators, usually to create the illusion of movement). By the mid-40's, he had been promoted to fully-fledged animator. He had a special fondness for drawing Bugs Bunny, but ended up establishing a pretty good track record with all of the key Looney Tunes inhabitants: his animations are showcased in classic episodes like Rabbit Fire (1951) (the famous "Rabbit season-Duck season" sequence between Bugs and Daffy) and Drip-Along Daffy (1951) (the saloon scene with 'Nasty Canasta'); Rabbit of Seville (1950); Bully for Bugs (1953) and Duck Amuck (1953) (Daffy transformed into a flowery critter). He was credited as chief animator on one of the all-time favorites, Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953) as well as on the Pepe Le Pew episode The Cats Bah (1954). Vaughan left Warner Brothers when their animation department closed and later did some work for Hanna-Barbera. He was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Art & Sciences and the Screen Cartoonists Guild (he also served as editor of their newspaper, "The Animator').