Ben Shenkman (3 July 1914 – 14 April 1996[1]) was an American animator.
Career[]
Shenkman started working for Columbia in New York as an office boy in the late twenties. He worked for Max Fleischer in the ink and paint department and returned to Columbia after being laid off. In 1930, a sixteen year old Shenkman was invited to work at Hollywood on the Krazy Kat cartoons where he joined as an in-betweener for nine years.
One of his contributions in the 1930s where he designed all the caricatures of the celebrities for the Color Rhapsody cartoon: "Mother Goose in Swingtime."[2]
Friz Freleng, who had just returned to Schlesinger's knew about him from Columbia animator Arthur Davis and invited him to work on his film "Malibu Beach Party." After the success of the cartoon, Shenkman was hired by the studio in March 1940 as an animation assistant.
During the production of Tex Avery's "Hollywood Steps Out," Tex engaged him to do caricatures of celebrities and he made about fifty model sheets of celebrities, which the animators adapted for consistent head size, perspective rendering, and movement.[3] After his brief stint for Warners, Shenkman moved to MGM.
Shenkman later worked for Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and for Ralph Bakshi during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.[4]
Looney Works[]
- Malibu Beach Party - character designer (uncredited)
- Hollywood Steps Out - character designer (uncredited)