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Herman Robert Cohen (25 March 1913 - 21 August 1970) was an American animator. He worked at various studios during the Golden Age of Animation such as Fleischer Studios, Warner Bros., MGM, and Walter Lantz.

Career[]

Cohen started his career animating at Fleischer Studios in the mid-30s. In 1937, he would move to southern California[1], where he would begin animating for Leon Schlesinger Productions. During his first stint at the studio, he worked under the supervision of Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton, as well as Friz Freleng.

Cohen joined the Signal Corps in mid-1941, where he would briefly animate for the Training Film Production Laboratory in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey[2]. He was discharged in November 1941, and reportedly went back to Schlesinger's.[3]

Cohen's second stint at the studio was as an animator for Arthur Davis's unit in 1947, after which he seemingly left. What Cohen did from 1948 to 1950 is currently unknown. 1951 marked the beginning of his third and final time working at the studio, this time animating under the supervision of Robert McKimson. The first couple of cartoons Cohen animated for McKimson had him uncredited; Cohen's first credit under McKimson was 1952's "The Turn-Tale Wolf". He would remain in the unit until the 1953 studio shutdown.

Later Career[]

Shortly after the shutdown, Cohen would begin travelling to multiple studios. His first post-Warner work was at Walter Lantz Productions in 1953. He would then move to MGM in the mid-50s. The late-50s would see him moving again, this time to UPA, where he worked on 1001 Arabian Nights. Additionally, Cohen would animate on a few commercials during this time period [4].

Cohen would work on various projects in the 60s, most notably the Bill Melendez Peanuts specials and a few of the DePatie-Freleng shorts. The last known cartoon Cohen worked on was Filmation's Groovie Goolies, which was released posthumously.

Looney Works[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Deaths, Funeral Announcements", The Los Angeles Times, 1971-08-24, p. 18. 
  2. "Signal Corps Call Field Men", The Film Daily, 1941-07-10, p. 8. 
  3. "Training Film Lab. Loses 25 More Pic, Radio Men", The Film Daily, 1941-11-05, p. 2. 
  4. Commercials Animated by Emery Hawkins and Herman Cohen
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