Virgil Walter Ross
Encyclopedia
Virgil Walter Ross was an American artist, cartoonist, and animator best known for his work on the Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 animated shorts.

Early years

Virgil Ross (as he was usually known) spent his early years in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 state and in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, but his family moved to Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, when he was in his late teens. This state was to be his primary home for the rest of his life.

Cartooning and animation

His introduction to cartooning was in high-school, where he took a class in that art form. Early work was done for Charles B. Mintz
Charles B. Mintz
Charles B. Mintz was an American film producer and distributor, who took control over Margaret J. Winkler's Winkler Pictures after marrying her in 1924....

 (later Screen Gems
Screen Gems
Screen Gems is an American movie production company and subsidiary company of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group that has served several different purposes for its parent companies over the decades since its incorporation....

), Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks
Ub Iwerks, A.S.C. was a two-time Academy Award winning American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, creator of Mickey Mouse, and special effects technician, who was famous for his work for Walt Disney....

 studio, and then on to Walter Lantz
Walter Lantz
Walter Benjamin Lantz was an American cartoonist, animator, film producer, and director, best known for founding Walter Lantz Productions and creating Woody Woodpecker.-Early years and start in animation:...

, where he began animation work. In 1935, he moved on to work for Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger
Leon Schlesinger was an American film producer, most noted for founding Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the golden age of Hollywood animation.-Early life and career:...

 at Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 where he spent about 30 years, first under Tex Avery
Tex Avery
Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros...

's supervision, until 1942, then for Bob Clampett
Bob Clampett
Robert Emerson "Bob" Clampett was an American animator, producer, director, and puppeteer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes animated series from Warner Bros., and the television shows Time for Beany and Beany and Cecil...

, and finally with Friz Freleng
Friz Freleng
Isadore "Friz" Freleng was an animator, cartoonist, director, and producer best known for his work on the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons from Warner Bros....

. His résumé also includes time spent with such firms as Filmation
Filmation
Filmation Associates was an American production company that produced animation and live action programming for television during the latter half of the 20th century. Located in Reseda, California, the animation studio was founded in 1963...

 (where he worked on the early '70s Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Animated Series is an animated science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe following the events of Star Trek: The Original Series of the 1960s...

), Hanna Barbera, and 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...

.

He was notably self-effacing. In an interview with John Province in 1989, he is quoted as saying "I always had an eye for movement, and I think this kept me in the business a lot longer than a lot of guys, despite the fact that I really wasn't very good at drawing. When I started out in animation, you didn't have to be a good artist. I just had a little natural talent, and it's mostly just timing anyway."

Of the very many characters Ross animated, he is most closely associated with Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...

, but also did a great deal of work involving Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...

, Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam
Yosemite Sam is an American animated cartoon character in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Animation. The name is somewhat alliterative and is inspired by Yosemite National Park...

, Tweety
Tweety
Tweety Bird is a fictional Yellow Canary in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of animated cartoons. The name "Tweety" is a play on words, as it originally meant "sweetie", along with "tweet" being a typical English onomatopoeia for the sounds of birds...

, and many others, including Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. When handling long-eared characters such as Bugs or Wile E., Ross occasionally tilted or waved an ear in otherwise-static scenes.
As the animator for "A Wild Hare", generally regarded as the first appearance of Bugs Bunny, Ross had a first person view of the creation of the character.

In the interview of Ross, published in Animato magazine #19, Virgil recalls (on page 17) how the character of Bugs Bunny came to be. He says in the interview, "We received orders from the story department that they needed a drawing of a bunny. We all did drawings and tacked them on the wall, and the storymen voted on them. We had one writer named Bugs Hardaway, and for some reason, this one drawing became known as Bugs' Bunny. Leon Schlesinger liked the sound of the name and told them to keep it, and that's how Bugs Bunny got his name. Years later, before he died, Hardaway tried to get some credit for making the character, which he probably deserved. But Warner Bros owned the rights to everything we created."

Awards

Virgil Ross received the highest awards available in his profession: the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Golden Award (1984) and the 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...

 (1988). Four of the cartoons he had animated won Oscars: Tweety Pie (1947), Speedy Gonzales (1955), Birds Anonymous
Birds Anonymous
Birds Anonymous is a 1957 Merrie Melodies animated short, directed by Friz Freleng and written by Warren Foster, starring Tweety Bird, Sylvester and Sam...

(1957), and Knighty Knight Bugs
Knighty Knight Bugs
Knighty Knight Bugs is a 1958 Looney Tunes cartoon directed by Friz Freleng, produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons and released by Warner Bros....

(1958).

Filmography

At Your Service, Madame (1935)

Plane Dippy (1936)

I Love to Singa (1936)

Milk and Money (1936)

Porky's Duck Hunt (1937)

I Only Have Eyes for You (1937)

A Sunbonnet Blue (1937)

Uncle Tom's Bungalow (1937)

Cinderella Meets Fella (1938)

Daffy Duck in Hollywood (1938)

Daffy Duck & Egghead (1938)

Screwball Football (1939)

Believe It or Else (1939)

Wacky Wildlife (1940)

A Wild Hare (1940)

All This and Rabbit Stew (1941)

Porky's Preview (1941)

Eatin' on the Cuff or The Moth Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Nutty News (1942)

Any Bonds Today? (1942)

Aloha Hooey (1942)

Chicken Little (1943)

Life with Feathers (1945) (uncredited)

Slightly Daffy (1944) (uncredited)

Peck Up Your Troubles (1945)

Hare Trigger (1945)

Rhapsody Rabbit (1946)

Racketeer Rabbit (1946)

Of Thee I Sting (1946)

Hollywood Daffy (1946)

Holiday for Shoestrings (1946)

Baseball Bugs (1946)

Slick Hare (1947)

Along Came Daffy (1947)

A Hare Grows in Manhattan (1947)

Rabbit Transit (1947)

Tweetie Pie (1947) (uncredited)

The Gay Anties (1947)

Kit for Cat (1948)

Hare Splitter (1948)

Bugs Bunny Rides Again (1948)

Buccaneer Bunny (1948)

I Taw a Putty Tat (1948)

Back Alley Oproar (1948)

Which Is Witch? (1949)

Each Dawn I Crow (1949)

Dough for the Do-Do (1949) (uncredited)

Bad Ol' Putty Tat (1949)

Knights Must Fall (1949)

Mouse Mazurka (1949)

Curtain Razor (1949)

High Diving Hare (1949)

Hare Do (1949)

Wise Quackers (1949)

Stooge for a Mouse (1950)

Canary Row (1950)

Bunker Hill Bunny (1950)

Golden Yeggs (1950)

All a Bir-r-r-rd (1950)

His Bitter Half (1950)

Big House Bunny (1950)

The Lion's Busy (1950)

Mutiny on the Bunny (1950)

Home, Tweet Home (1950)

Tweet Tweet Tweety (1951)

Ballot Box Bunny (1951)

Tweety's S.O.S. (1951)

His Hare Raising Tale (1951)

Room and Bird (1951)

A Bone for a Bone (1951)

The Fair Haired Hare (1951)

Putty Tat Trouble (1951)

Rabbit Every Monday (1951)

Canned Feud (1951)

Hare Lift (1952)

Tree for Two (1952)

A Bird in a Guilty Cage (1952)

Cracked Quack (1952)

Ain't She Tweet (1952)

Little Red Rodent Hood (1952)

Foxy by Proxy (1952)

Gift Wrapped (1952)

14 Carrot Rabbit (1952)

Robot Rabbit (1953)

Catty Cornered (1953)

A Street Cat Named Sylvester (1953)

Tom Tom Tomcat (1953)

Hare Trimmed (1953)

Ant Pasted (1953)

Southern Fried Rabbit (1953)

Fowl Weather (1953)

A Mouse Divided (1953)

Snow Business (1953)

Goo Goo Goliath (1954)

Yankee Doodle Bugs (1954)

Satan's Waitin (1954)

Muzzle Tough (1954)

Dr. Jerkyl's Hide (1954)

Bugs and Thugs (1954)

Captain Hareblower (1954)

I Gopher You (1954)

Dog Pounded (1954)

Sandy Claws (1954)

Heir-Conditioned (1955)

Roman Legion-Hare (1955)

Hyde and Hare (1955)

Lumber Jerks (1955)

Stork Naked (1955)

Pests for Guests (1955)

Pizzicato Pussycat (1955)

Two Crows from Tacos (1956)

Yankee Dood It (1956)

A Star Is Bored (1956)

Tugboat Granny (1956)

Napoleon Bunny-Part (1956)

Tree Cornered Tweety (1956)

Rabbitson Crusoe (1956)

Tweet and Sour (1956)

Gonzales' Tamales (1957)

Show Biz Bugs (1957)

Greedy for Tweety (1957)

Bugsy and Mugsy (1957)

Birds Anonymous (1957)

Piker's Peak (1957)

Tweety and the Beanstalk (1957)

Tweet Zoo (1957)

A Bird in a Bonnet (1958)

Knighty Knight Bugs (1958)

A Waggily Tale (1958)

A Pizza Tweety-Pie (1958)

Hare-Less Wolf (1958)

Tweet Dreams (1959)

Here Today, Gone Tamale (1959)

Wild and Woolly Hare (1959)

Tweet and Lovely (1959)

Mexicali Shmoes (1959)

Apes of Wrath (1959)

Trick or Tweet (1959)

Lighter Than Hare (1960)

Trip for Tat (1960)

The Bugs Bunny Show (1960) TV Series

The Flintstones (1960) TV Series

From Hare to Heir (1960)

Mouse and Garden (1960)

Hyde and Go Tweet (1960)

Person to Bunny (1960)

Goldimouse and the Three Cats (1960)

Horse Hare (1960)

The Last Hungry Cat (1961)

Prince Violent (1961)

The Pied Piper of Guadalupe (1961)

The Rebel Without Claws (1961)

D' Fightin' Ones (1961)

Shishkabugs (1962)

The Jet Cage (1962)

Honey's Money (1962)

Mexican Boarders (1962)

Crow's Feat (1962)

Quackodile Tears (1962)

The Unmentionables (1963)

Chili Weather (1963)

Philbert (Three's a Crowd) (1963)

Mexican Cat Dance (1963)

Devil's Feud Cake (1963)

Linus! The Lion Hearted (1964) (2 episodes):
Adrift on the Rapids (1964) TV Episode
Mocking Bird (1964) TV Episode

Señorella and the Glass Huarache (1964)

Hawaiian Aye Aye (1964)

Nuts and Volts (1964)

Dumb Patrol (1964)

Chaser on the Rocks (1965)

Highway Runnery (1965)

Hairied and Hurried (1965)

Just Plane Beep (1965)

Boulder Wham! (1965)

Tired and Feathered (1965)

The Road Runner Show (1966) TV Series

Clippety Clobbered (1966)

The Solid Tin Coyote (1966)

Out and Out Rout (1966)

Shot and Bothered (1966)

The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure (1967) TV Series

The Spy Swatter (1967)

The Music Mice-Tro (1967)

Quacker Tracker (1967)

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour (1968) TV Series

The Archie Show (1968) TV Series

The Batman/Superman Hour (1968) TV Series

Archie's Fun House (1970) TV Series

Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down (1970) (1 episode):
Computer Suitor (1970) TV Episode

Moochin' Pooch (1971)

Chilly's Hide-a-Way (1971)

Airlift à la Carte (1971)

The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie (1972) (1 episode):
Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies (1972) TV Episode

Fritz the Cat (1972)

Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) TV Series

Journey Back to Oz (1974)

Bobolink Pink (1975)

Pink Elephant (1975)

The Oddball Couple (1975) TV Series

Pink Plasma (1975)

Pink Da Vinci (1975)

The Pink Panther Laugh and the Half Hour and Half Show (1976) TV Series

The Sylvester & Tweety Show (1976) TV Series

Pink Piper (1976)

The Fat Albert Christmas Special (1977) TV

The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show (1978) TV Series

Pinktails for Two (1978)

The Pink of Bagdad (1978)

Pink Press (1978)

Cat and the Pinkstalk (1978)

Pink Daddy (1978)

Pink Lightning (1978)

Pink Pictures (1978)

The All New Pink Panther Show (1978) TV Series

Winds of Change (1978)

The Fantastic Four (1978) TV Series

Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979) TV

Raggedy Ann & Andy: The Pumpkin Who Couldn't Smile (1979) TV

The Great American Chase (1979) (segment "Bugs at Home")

Pink in the Woods (1979)

Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over (1980) TV

The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981)

Mighty Mouse in the Great Space Chase (1982)

Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982)

Hey Good Lookin (1982)

The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat (1982) TV

Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island (1983)

Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (1983)

The Bugs Bunny/Looney Tunes Comedy Hour (1985) TV Series

The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985) TV Series

The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show (1986) TV Series

Christmas in Tattertown (1987) TV

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988)

Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends (1990) TV Series

That's Warner Bros.! (1995) TV Series
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