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Preston Blair is a Director, Producer and Animation American born on 24 october 1908 at Redlands (USA)

Preston Blair

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Birth name Preston Erwin Blair
Nationality USA
Birth 24 october 1908 at Redlands (USA)
Death 19 april 1995 (at 86 years) at Santa Cruz (USA)

Preston Blair (1908–1995) was an American character animator, most noted for his work at Walt Disney Productions and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation department

A native of Redlands, California, Blair began his animation career in the early 1930s at the Universal studio under Walter Lantz and Bill Nolan. He later moved over to Charles Mintz's Screen Gems studio, and in the late 1930s moved over to the Disney studio. At Disney, Blair animated cartoon short subjects, Mickey Mouse scenes in The Sorcerer's Apprentice section of Fantasia, and the hippo-alligator dance in Fantasia's "Dance of the Hours" sequence. He also did some work on Disney's Pinocchio and Bambi.

Blair left Disney after the 1941 Disney animator's strike, and was hired to work for Tex Avery's unit at MGM. There, he became particularly noted for animating the titular female character in Red Hot Riding Hood. "Red" later re-appeared in more Avery cartoons, including Swing Shift Cinderella, Little Rural Riding Hood, Uncle Tom's Cabana and the Droopy cartoons The Shooting of Dan McGoo and Wild and Woolfy, with animation by Blair. In the late 1940s, Blair teamed with Avery animator Michael Lah to direct several Barney Bear cartoons.

Blair continued his career in animation into the 1960s, working on The Flintstones at Hanna-Barbera. He is most noted, however, as an author of animation instructional books for Walter Foster Publishing. His first book, Animation, was published in 1948 and originally included images of the famous MGM & Disney cartoon characters he had animated, who were redrawn to obscure their origins in the second edition of the book. Blair would write many more animation how-to texts over the next forty years, culminating with 1994's Cartoon Animation, a 224-page book which compiles most of the content from all of his books.

Preston Blair was the brother of artist Lee Everett Blair [1] and the brother-in-law of artist and designer Mary Blair. He died in April 1995.

Biography

Après des études au Pomona College, il suit un cursus artistique à l'Otis Art Institute puis auprès de l'illustrateur Pruett Carter à Chouinard School of Art (California school of watercolor). Il participa à de nombreuses expositions en tant que membre de la California Watercolor Society et de l'American Watercolor Society à New York.

Il entame sa carrière d'animateur au début des années 1930 au studio Universal, sous la direction de Walter Lantz et de Bill Nolan. Il travaille ensuite pour le Screen Gem Studio de Charles Mintz et, à la fin des années 1930, est engagé par les Studios Disney. Là, il anime notamment des séquences de Fantasia, comme l'Apprenti sorcier et la danse des heures. Il travaille aussi sur les films Pinocchio et Bambi. Après la grève des animateurs Disney en 1941, Preston Blair est embauché par MGM et travaille sous la direction de Tex Avery. On lui doit notamment l'animation du personnage féminin de Red Hot Riding Hood. Il collabore avec Tex Avery sur de nombreux dessins animés, dont ceux de la série Droopy. Avec l'animateur Michael Lah, il travaille sur plusieurs animations de la série Barney bear.

Au cours des années 1960, Preston Blair travaille pour Hanna-Barbera, notamment sur la série des Flintstones. On lui doit aussi des animations éducatives pour l'éditeur Walter Foster. À côté de cette carrière bien remplie, Preston Blair a publié plusieurs ouvrages pédagogiques consacrés à l'apprentissage de l'animation.

Preston Blair est le frère du peintre Lee Everett Blair et le beau-frère de l'illustratrice Mary Blair.