A CHARLIE BROWN FUNERAL

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Bill Melendez, the animator who brought Charles Schulz‘s beloved characters to life on TV is dead at 91.

Jose Cuautemoc "Bill" Melendez earned 4 Emmy noms, an Oscar nom and two Peabody Awards in a decades spanning animation career.

Born in Mexico, November 15, 1916, Melendez began his career at the Chouinard Art Institute in LA and soon joined the ranks of Disney animators working on classics Pinocchio, Bambi, Fantasia, Dumbo as well as hundreds of Mickey Mouse shorts.

After the bitter union dispute in 1941, Bill moved to the Leon Schlesinger unit at Warner Brothers animating Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and other Looney Tunes.  His screen cred then was J.C. Melendez.

He later formed his own production company where he teamed with cartoonist Charles Schulz to bring the Peanuts strip to TV in a series of popular specials beginning with A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Schulz had insisted that as a dog (albeit one who fought the Red Baron) Snoopy couldn’t talk but Melendez experimented with the vocal tonalities, speeding them up and slowing them down as needed and played the tape for Schulz.

Schulz was sold and Melendez voiced Snoopy in 63 subsequent cartoons including four feature films.

Adios,  amigo.