On August 16, the famous director and animator Richard Williams, who was a three-time Oscar winner, passed away. Read more about his life and work.
Richard Edmund Willams – animator, director, screenwriter and voice actor, known primarily as the creator of the films Who Framed Roger Rabbit? , Baghdad Thief and animated introductions to The Return of the Pink Panther and The Pink Panther Strikes Back , he died at the age of 86 on Friday 16 August at his home in Bristol.
He was born on March 19, 1933 in Toronto, Canada. He started his first job at Disney Studios in Burbank, where he gained experience that he used in his later work. At 22, he moved to England, where he began working with Cartoons Ltd., mainly creating animated TV commercials.
He created his first short animation The Little Island in 1958 and a year later won the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film a year later.
Soon after, he founded his own animation studio Richard Williams Productions (later Richard Williams Animation Studio) and, apart from commercials, he also began producing animated films and animated inserts for full-length feature films (such as, for example, What’s up, kitty? And Likwidator – both from 1965).
In 1971 he produced A Christmas Carol , which won him the Academy Award for Best Animated Short 2 years later.
He created animated intros to the 1975 films The Return of the Pink Panther and the 1976 Pink Panther Strikes Back .
In 1982, he directed the television animation Ziggy’s Gift and won an Emmy for it.
However, his greatest fame was due to the animations in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? from 1988, for which he received 2 Oscars in 1989: for the best special effects and for special achievements.
One of Williams’ greatest works in life was the animated film The Thief of Baghdad , on which he began work in 1964 and was suspended several times due to lack of funds and the suspicion that the film would not be too catchy in terms of marketing. However, the film was eventually made in 1993.
The artist’s last short animated film was Prologue from 2015, which he animated and directed. The animation was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Animated Short Film category.
