Gene Deitch was born in Chicago, Illinois on Aug. 8, 1924, later moving to California with his family and attending school in Hollywood. Deitch’s passion for the arts and drawing was apparent as a kid, making his first animated cartoon when he was only 13 years old. However, after graduating high school, the United States was in the midst of World War II, and Deitch ended up working for North American Aviation. He used his artistic talent to draw industrial parts and catalogs in aircraft factories. He was eventually drafted and served for about a year before he contracted pneumonia and was honorably discharged. This moment allowed Deitch to pursue his artistic career, which originally consisted of mostly music and sound engineering.
Deitch’s breakthrough into the comic and animation industry came in 1955, when he earned a position at United Productions of America, a small operation of around 12 members. He became the creative director of Terrytoons, an animation studio that consisted of short animated films for kids. This is where Deitch’s creativity shined, creating characters like Tom Terrific, Sidney the Elephant and Clint Clobber. In 1958, Deitch created his own cartoon, Sidney’s Family Tree, which found major success and earned an Academy Award nomination.
In 1959, Deitch moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia where he took took on a directing role for King Features. There, he worked on shows like Popeye and Krazy Kat as well as cartoons, like Tom and Jerry, for MGM studios. Outside of those shows, Deitch worked on the film Munro, a nine-minute animated short that won an Oscar for best-animated short film in 1961.
After his animation career was over, Deitch lived out the rest of his life with his wife Zdenka, until he tragically passed away in 2020 at the age of 95. Deitch is known and appreciated for his brilliant creativity, fun animations and strong influence in the world of comics.
