Richard Williams
Birthday: 1933-03-19 Place of Birth: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Synopsis
Richard Edmund Williams (March 19, 1933-August 16, 2019) was a Canadian–British animator, voice artist, and writer, best known for serving as animation director on Disney/Amblin's Who Framed Roger Rabbit and for his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler. He was also a film title sequence designer and animator; his most famous works in this field included the title sequences to What's New, Pussycat? (1965) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) and title and linking sequences in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968). He also animated the eponymous cartoon feline for two of the later Pink Panther films.
Acting
Persistence of Vision
It was to be the greatest animated film of all time. Not just an eye-opener, but a game-changer. Richard Williams demanded nothing less, investing nearly three decades into his movie masterpiece. From as early as 1964 he ploughed most of the profits right back into his pet project, a feature inspired by the Arabian Nights and provisionally known as Mullah Nasruddin. He assembled a team of inspired young artists—and brought in the best Hollywood craftsmen to teach them—and devised what would be the most elaborate, kaleidoscopic, mind-boggling visual sequences ever committed to celluloid. Years passed. Potential financiers came and went. Work continued. But it was only after Roger Rabbit that Williams had a studio budget to corroborate the munificence of his imagination.
Behind the Ears: The True Story of Roger Rabbit
This documentary is featured on the 2-disc Vista Series DVD for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, released in 2003
Tummy Trouble
Roger Rabbit once again is chosen for the dangerous task of babysitting Baby Herman and everything is going to be just fine.