Murió el creador de la Pantera Rosa y Rogger Rabbit

Richard Williams, ‘Roger Rabbit’ and ‘Pink Panther’ Animator, Dead at 86

El animador y cineasta Richard Williams, creador de personajes como la Pantera Rosa o Rogger Rabbit, falleció en Bristol, Inglaterra, a los 86 años. No trascendió por ahora las causas de la muerte. La familia de Williams confirmó al diario británico The Guardian la defunción del director el pasado viernes 16 de agosto. Ganó tres premios Oscar por su labor.

Richard Williams (Canadá, 1933) nació en Ontario, pero años más tarde se trasladaría a Gran Bretaña para desarrollar sus dotes de dibujo. Desde muy pequeño, el trabajo de sus sueños era ser animador para los estudios Walt Disney, tal y como declaró en una entrevista a la BBC: “Cuando era niño siempre quise trabajar para Disney. Era curioso e inteligente, así que envié mis dibujos y por casualidad, me hicieron caso”.

Tal y como le recomendaron en la Casa del Ratón, perfeccionó sus trazos y su forma de dibujar. Sus manos firmaron The Little Island en 1958, su primer cortometraje. Poco a poco, se hizo un nombre en el mundo del cine de animación, y su lápiz contribuyó a la creación de personajes como La Pantera Rosa en sendas películas: El regreso de la pantera rosa (1975) y La pantera rosa ataca de nuevo (1976).

En 1988 fue director de animación de ¿Quién engañó a Roger Rabbit?, creando a personajes tan queridos como el propio Rogger o Jessica Rabbit. Además de dedicarse al mundo de los dibujos animados, también figura como director y guionista de títulos como El ladrón de Bagdad (1993).

Williams ganó tres premios Oscar: en 1973 a mejor contometraje de animación por El cuento de Navidad; en 1989, dentro de la categoría de mejor montaje y mejores efectos visuales, para ¿Quién engañó a Roger Rabbit? y en 2015 obtuvo el Oscar y el BAFTA a mejor cortometraje de animación por Prologue.

El Sol

English:

(CNN) — Richard Williams, the animator known for his work on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and two “Pink Panther” films, is dead, his family told PA Media, the UK national news agency.

He was 86 years old.

Williams, who was born in Toronto but moved to the UK in the 1950s, died Friday at his home in St. Andrews, Bristol.

His daughter Natasha Sutton Williams told the PA that her father had been suffering from cancer. He was animating and writing until 6 p.m. on the day he died, she said.

“He really was an inspiration to everyone that met him,” Williams’ daughter said. “Whether they were animators, or from the top to the bottom of society.”

Williams had won three Oscars, three British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards and more than 250 other international awards, according to his website The Animator’s Survival Kit.

“During his more than 50 years in the business Williams has been one of the true innovators and serves as the link between the Golden Age of animation by hand and the new computer animation successes,” his biography reads. “Perhaps even more important has been his dedication to passing along his knowledge to a new generation of animators so that they in turn can push the medium in new directions.”

Williams would go on to become the director of animation for the hit film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and be credited, along with director Robert Zemeckis, as a trailblazer of live-action integration with cartoon characters.

But Williams initially was reluctant to take the job, according to Southam News. At the time, he was working on “The Thief And The Cobbler” and would have to put all of his other projects on hold to focus on Roger Rabbit.

“I feared if I did this picture it would stop everything,” he said in 1988. “It would destroy my commercial business for certain. And then I thought this might not be such a bad idea if it was lucrative enough to allow me to concentrate on just movies in the future.”

Ultimately, he said yes. He later won two Academy Awards for the Walt Disney/Steven Spielberg blockbuster.

Some of Williams’ other work is featured in the movies “The Return of the Pink Panther,” “The Pink Panther Strikes Again,” and 1967’s “Casino Royale,” as well as the 1971 TV short “A Christmas Carol.”