Pete Alvarado
Encyclopedia
Peter J. Alvarado, Jr. was an American
animation
and comic book
artist. Alvarado's animation career spanned almost 60 years. He was also a prolific contributor to Western Publishing
's line of comic books.
. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute
in the 1930; after graduation he was hired as an assistant animator by the Walt Disney Studio
. He provided uncredited work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
. Around 1939 Alvarado left Disney to find work in New York City, where he provided his earliest comic book art for Funnies Inc.
, which supplied artwork for Fawcett Publications
and Timely Comics (now Marvel Comics
).
Alvarado returned to California and Disney Studio in 1941. He left Disney in 1946 to work for Warner Bros. Animation
. Alvarado became the Background painter for Chuck Jones, and his first screen credit was on the 1947 Pepé Le Pew
short, "Scent-imental Over You
." He held this position until 1951, Working on several catyoons such as the first Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
cartoon, "Fast and Furry-ous
, and Chuck Jones oscar winning short For Scent-imental Reasons
. His last work with Jones was "Scentimental Romeo
" in 1951, another cartoon featuring Pepé Le Pew. Alvarado went on to Replace Cornett Wood
as chief layout artist for Robert McKimson
's unit.
After Warner Bros. Animation studios closed their doors, Alvarado joined DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
. He worked on several Pink Panther shorts, as well as the short lived animated series Super President
.
Around 1971 Alvarado joined Hanna-Barbera
as a layout artist; he worked on such series as The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show
(1971), Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch
(1974), and many others. Alvarado also provided animation and layout work for Film Roman
(Garfield and Friends
).
Alvarado was the recipient of the 2001 Winsor McCay Award
, for his lifetime of achievement in animation, as well as the Animation Guild
's 1987 Golden Award.
(brother of animator Robert McKimson). McKimson was the art director at Western Publishing Company, and the two (in collaboration with Charles' brother Thomas
) drew the Roy Rogers
strip under the pen name "Al McKimson." Alvarado went on to draw the Gene Autry
newspaper strip and comic book, the Mr. Magoo
newspaper strip for its entire run, a long period of the Little Lulu
newspaper strip, some work on the Flintstones and Yogi Bear
newspaper strip, and fill-in work for almost all the Disney newspaper strips, including an extended period as the main artist on Donald Duck
.
The bulk of Alvarado's work at Western was for their "funny animal
" line of comic books. Alvarado provided artwork for almost every Disney (Chip 'n Dale
, Scamp), Warner Bros. (Tweety & Sylvester
, Road Runner), Hanna-Barbera (Yogi Bear
) and Walter Lantz (Andy Panda
) licensed title. He also illustrated comic book adaptations of the animated films The Rescuers
, Robin Hood
, and Gay Purr-ee
.
Alvarado retired from animation in 1999. He died of a heart attack
on December 27, 2003, in La Crescenta, California.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
animation
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
and comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
artist. Alvarado's animation career spanned almost 60 years. He was also a prolific contributor to Western Publishing
Western Publishing
Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company was a Racine, Wisconsin firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Western Publishing also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products as Golden Books Family Entertainment...
's line of comic books.
Animation
Alvarado was born in Raton, New Mexico, and grew up in Glendale, CaliforniaGlendale, California
Glendale is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the city population is 191,719, down from 194,973 at the 2000 census. making it the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 22nd largest city in the state of California...
. He attended the Chouinard Art Institute
Chouinard Art Institute
The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 in Los Angeles, California, by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard .-Founder:...
in the 1930; after graduation he was hired as an assistant animator by the Walt Disney Studio
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
. He provided uncredited work on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
. Around 1939 Alvarado left Disney to find work in New York City, where he provided his earliest comic book art for Funnies Inc.
Funnies Inc.
Funnies, Inc. is an American comic book packager of the 1930s-1940s Golden Age of comic books. Founded by Lloyd Jacquet, it supplied the contents of early comics, including that of Marvel Comics #1 , the first publication of what would become the multimedia corporation Marvel Comics. The Funnies, Inc...
, which supplied artwork for Fawcett Publications
Fawcett Publications
Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett . At the age of 16, Fawcett ran away from home to join the Army, and the Spanish-American War took him to the Philippines. Back in Minnesota, he became a...
and Timely Comics (now Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
).
Alvarado returned to California and Disney Studio in 1941. He left Disney in 1946 to work for Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Bros. Animation
Warner Bros. Animation is the animation division of Warner Bros., a subsidiary of Time Warner. The studio is closely associated with the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies characters, among others. The studio is the successor to Warner Bros...
. Alvarado became the Background painter for Chuck Jones, and his first screen credit was on the 1947 Pepé Le Pew
Pepé Le Pew
Pepé Le Pew is a fictional character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, first introduced in 1945. A French skunk that always strolls around in Paris in the springtime, when everyone's thoughts are of "love", Pepé is constantly seeking "l'amour" of his own...
short, "Scent-imental Over You
Scent-imental Over You
Scent-imental Over You is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes animated short film featuring Pepé Le Pew . It was produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc., directed by Chuck Jones, and written by Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce...
." He held this position until 1951, Working on several catyoons such as the first Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner
Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner are a duo of cartoon characters from a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. The characters were created by animation director Chuck Jones in 1948 for Warner Bros., while the template for their adventures was the work of writer Michael Maltese...
cartoon, "Fast and Furry-ous
Fast and Furry-ous
Fast and Furry-ous is a 1949 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoon, released on September 17, 1949, directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese...
, and Chuck Jones oscar winning short For Scent-imental Reasons
For Scent-imental Reasons
For Scent-imental Reasons is a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes short released in 1949. It was directed by Chuck Jones, written by Michael Maltese, and featured the characters Pepe Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat . It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film...
. His last work with Jones was "Scentimental Romeo
Scentimental Romeo
Scentimental Romeo is a 1950 animated short featuring Pepé Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat.-Plot:It is springtime in Paris, and Penelope Pussycat is starving, trying to beg the local zookeeper to give her some of the lions' food, who gently but sternly refuses. She then deliberately paints a stripe on...
" in 1951, another cartoon featuring Pepé Le Pew. Alvarado went on to Replace Cornett Wood
Cornett Wood
Cornett Wood was an American animator and layout artist. He served as an animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia for Walt Disney, and eventually went on to work on backgrounds for Robert McKimson at Warner Bros. Animation.-References:...
as chief layout artist for Robert McKimson
Robert McKimson
Robert "Bob" Porter McKimson, Sr. was an American animator, illustrator, and director best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros., and later DePatie-Freleng Enterprises...
's unit.
After Warner Bros. Animation studios closed their doors, Alvarado joined DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises was a Hollywood-based animation production company, active from 1963 to 1981. They produced theatrical cartoons, animated series, commercials, title sequences and television specials. Notable among these is The Pink Panther film titles and cartoon shorts and the Dr....
. He worked on several Pink Panther shorts, as well as the short lived animated series Super President
Super President
Super President was an American animated cartoon that aired Saturday mornings on NBC from September 16, 1967 to December 28, 1968. The series was produced by the DePatie-Freleng animation company.-Plot:...
.
Around 1971 Alvarado joined Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera
Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...
as a layout artist; he worked on such series as The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show
The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show
The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series spin-off of The Flintstones produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which ran for 16 half-hour episodes from September 11, 1971, to September 2, 1972, and four 8-minute episodes from September 9, 1972, to September 1,...
(1971), Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch
Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch
Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch is a 30-minute cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired for one season on NBC from September 7, 1974 to August 30, 1975...
(1974), and many others. Alvarado also provided animation and layout work for Film Roman
Film Roman
Film Roman is an animation studio founded by Phil Roman, best known for producing the animation for The Simpsons, King of the Hill for 20th Century Fox, as well as the Garfield and Peanuts animated TV specials....
(Garfield and Friends
Garfield and Friends
Garfield and Friends is an American animated television series based on the comic strip Garfield by Jim Davis. The show was produced by Film Roman, in association with United Feature Syndicate and Paws, Inc., and ran on CBS Saturday mornings from September 17, 1988 to December 10, 1994, with...
).
Alvarado was the recipient of the 2001 Winsor McCay Award
Winsor McCay Award
The Winsor McCay Award is given to individuals in recognition of lifetime or career contributions in animation. The award is presented at the annual Annie Awards, presented by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood...
, for his lifetime of achievement in animation, as well as the Animation Guild
The Animation Guild, I.A.T.S.E. Local 839
The Animation Guild, I.A.T.S.E. Local 839 is a professional guild and union of animation artists, writers and technicians. It was formed in 1952...
's 1987 Golden Award.
Comic books
Concurrently with his animation work, Alvarado also worked as a prolific comic book illustrator. As noted above, he worked from 1939 to 1941 providing artwork for Funnies Inc. Alvarado returned to the comic book world in 1947, in collaboration with Charles McKimsonCharles McKimson
Charles Edson "Chuck" McKimson, Jr. was an American animator, best known for his work at Warner Bros. studio. He was the younger brother of animators Robert and Thomas McKimson. His father was a newspaperman who later become the editor of the Scandia Journal in Scandia, Kansas.McKimson was born...
(brother of animator Robert McKimson). McKimson was the art director at Western Publishing Company, and the two (in collaboration with Charles' brother Thomas
Thomas McKimson
Thomas Jacob "Tom" McKimson was an American animator, best known for his work at Warner Bros. studio. He was the older brother of animators Robert and Charles McKimson....
) drew the Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers
Roy Rogers, born Leonard Franklin Slye , was an American singer and cowboy actor, one of the most heavily marketed and merchandised stars of his era, as well as being the namesake of the Roy Rogers Restaurants franchised chain...
strip under the pen name "Al McKimson." Alvarado went on to draw the Gene Autry
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover Autry , better known as Gene Autry, was an American performer who gained fame as The Singing Cowboy on the radio, in movies and on television for more than three decades beginning in the 1930s...
newspaper strip and comic book, the Mr. Magoo
Mr. Magoo
Quincy Magoo is a cartoon character created at the UPA animation studio in 1949. Voiced by Jim Backus, Quincy Magoo is a wealthy, short-statured retiree who gets into a series of sticky situations as a result of his nearsightedness, compounded by his stubborn refusal to admit the problem...
newspaper strip for its entire run, a long period of the Little Lulu
Little Lulu
"Little Lulu" is the nickname for Lulu Moppett, a comic strip character created in the mid-1930s by Marjorie Henderson Buell. The character debuted in The Saturday Evening Post on February 23, 1935 in a single panel, appearing as a flower girl at a wedding and strewing the aisle with banana peels...
newspaper strip, some work on the Flintstones and Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear is a fictional bear who appears in animated cartoons created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in The Huckleberry Hound Show. Yogi Bear was the first breakout character created by Hanna-Barbera, and was eventually more popular than...
newspaper strip, and fill-in work for almost all the Disney newspaper strips, including an extended period as the main artist on Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
.
The bulk of Alvarado's work at Western was for their "funny animal
Funny animal
Funny animal is a cartooning term for the genre of comics and animated cartoons in which the main characters are humanoid or talking animals, with anthropomorphic personality traits. The characters themselves may also be called funny animals...
" line of comic books. Alvarado provided artwork for almost every Disney (Chip 'n Dale
Chip 'n Dale
Chip and Dale are two chipmunk cartoon characters created in 1943 at Walt Disney Productions. Their names are a pun based on the name "Chippendale"...
, Scamp), Warner Bros. (Tweety & Sylvester
Sylvester (Looney Tunes)
Sylvester J. Pussycat, Sr., Sylvester the Cat or simply Sylvester, is a fictional character, a three-time Academy Award-winning anthropomorphic Tuxedo cat in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies repertory, often chasing Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales, or Hippety Hopper...
, Road Runner), Hanna-Barbera (Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear
Yogi Bear is a fictional bear who appears in animated cartoons created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in The Huckleberry Hound Show. Yogi Bear was the first breakout character created by Hanna-Barbera, and was eventually more popular than...
) and Walter Lantz (Andy Panda
Andy Panda
Andy Panda is a cartoon character who starred in his own series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Walter Lantz. These "cartunes" were released by Universal Pictures from 1939 to 1947 and United Artists from 1948 to 1949. The titular character is an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a...
) licensed title. He also illustrated comic book adaptations of the animated films The Rescuers
The Rescuers
The Rescuers is a 1977 American animated feature produced by Walt Disney Productions and first released on June 22, 1977. The 23rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is about the Rescue Aid Society, an international mouse organization headquartered in New York and shadowing...
, Robin Hood
Robin Hood (1973 film)
Robin Hood is an 1973 American animated film produced by the Walt Disney Productions, first released in the United States on November 8, 1973...
, and Gay Purr-ee
Gay Purr-ee
Gay Purr-ee is an animated film musical produced by United Productions of America and released by Warner Bros. in 1962. It features the voice talent of Judy Garland in her only animated-film role.- Plot:...
.
Alvarado retired from animation in 1999. He died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
on December 27, 2003, in La Crescenta, California.