Dick Lundy

Richard James "Dick" Lundy was an American animator and film director, who worked at several different animation studios, including Walt Disney Productions, MGM, and Hanna-Barbera. Lundy was a pioneer of personality animation and is today most remembered as one of the creators of Donald Duck. Throughout his career, he worked as a primary animator on at least 60 films, both short and feature-length, and directed 51 short films.
==Career overview==
In the summer of 1929, Lundy started working for Walt Disney Productions, first assigned in the ink and paint department. In September, he transferred to the animation department as an in-betweener. In March the next year, Lundy was promoted to animator and later worked on Three Little Pigs (1933) and Orphan's Benefit. After working on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lundy became a director at Disney.
In 1943, Lundy departed the Disney studios and worked for Walter Lantz Productions. He started as an animator and again became a director. He directed Andy Panda, Woody Woodpecker, and the Swing Symphonies. Lundy worked for Wolff Productions after the Lantz studio closed in 1949. Here, he worked on television commercials. In 1950, Lundy worked for MGM on Barney Bear shorts and the Droopy film Caballero Droopy. In 1959, Lundy worked for Hanna-Barbera on The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, and Scooby-Doo. He retired in 1973, but continued to do freelance work for several years thereafter.
==Donald Duck==
Lundy was not the first to draw or even animate Donald Duck. This was done by Art Babbitt and Dick Huemer in the short film The Wise Little Hen, a film in which Lundy also worked. This was Donald's first appearance, although the story offered little opportunity for character development. This would come in Donald's second appearance, Orphan's Benefit, in which Lundy was the sole animator of Donald. According to common animation practice, the audio and voices of the film were recorded first and were then played for the animators to reference. In listening to voice actor Clarence Nash portray the Duck in Orphan's Benefit, Lundy said "[I] decided that [Donald] was an ego-show-off. If anything crossed him, he got mad and blew his top."
==Personal life==
Lundy was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan to James and Minnie Lundy, their only child. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Detroit, where Lundy's father worked as an inspector for the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. When Lundy was ten years old, his parents separated and he and his mother went to live in Port Huron north of Detroit. They later moved back to the city, where Lundy's mother worked as a waitress. Lundy moved to Los Angeles, California in the late 1920s. Lundy was married twice. In 1932, he married Juanita Sheridan, who also worked at the Disney studio. This marriage ended in divorce in 1934. By 1939, Lundy was remarried.
==Gallery==
Disney animators at work.jpg|From left: Lundy, Norman Ferguson, Jack King, Burt Gillett, Merle Gilson, and Ben Sharpsteen
Disney staff 1930 (1).jpg|Left to Right: King, Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney, Carl Stalling, GillettKneeling, from left, Sharpsteen, Lundy, Gilson, and Ferguson
Disney staff in January 1930 (2).jpg|Standing, from left: Les Clark, King, Sharpsteen, Jack Cutting, Gillett, Iwerks, Win Smith, Wilfred Jackson, William Cottrell, Floyd GottfredsonKneeling, from left, Lundy, Charles Byrne, Carlos Manriquez, Ferguson, Gilson, Chuck Couch, Stalling, Johnny Cannon, Walt Disney
Disney staff 1931 (1).jpg|Standing from left: Edmond Seward, Frank Churchill, Otto Englander, Sharpsteen, Bert Lewis, Gilles "Frenchy" de Tremaudan, Clark, Rudy Zamora, Jackson, King, Tom Palmer, Cutting (behind Palmer), Cannon, Ferguson, Webb SmithSeated, from left: David Hand, Ted Sears, Lundy, Gillett, W. Disney
Disney staff 1931 (2).jpg|1931; Standing from left: Smith, Seward, Englander, Zamora, Hand, Palmer, Cutting, W. Disney, Churchill, Cannon, SharpsteenSeated from left: King, Lundy, Sears, Ferguson, de Tremaudan, Jackson, Clark, Gillett, Lewis
==External links==
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Category:Males
Category:1900s births
Category:1990s deaths
Category:Deceased
Category:People from Michigan
Category:Directors
Category:Animators
Category:Disney people
Category:Mickey Mouse
Category:Donald Duck
Category:Silly Symphonies
Category:Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs