AnMDBCartoon
New Member
I know....
Yer all most likely askin' "Goddard WHO?"
You may not have known him - or even heard of him, but you HAVE....seen his work.
Amongst various and sundry duties, he served as a designer/layout artiste/animation director for Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, and even on Ren & Stimpy Adult Cartoon Party.
He was one of a team of a 4 man animation unit known in the business as Captain Billy's Whiz Gang.
And he was a VERY close friend of my family.
Born, bred & raised in Omaha, Nebraska, he got his (ironic) nickname, not from the "Peanuts" character 'Pig-Pen'...nor from the late Grateful Dead keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan...
But, ironically, unlike either persona....he was a *very* dapper figure...ALWAYS dressed to the 9's - either on duty or off duty..in suit and tie...or silk shirts and pressed pants (even the dungarees).....the total antithesis of what we teasingly called him.
His younger brother, Pratt (born 1982), is a film, stage, & telly actor.
Pigpen was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.
He underwent all the recuperative rigamarole...and *whipped* it..
On Saturday, 27 March, whilst pursuing his hobby - working on classic cars (He loved Ford Mustangs) - Pigpen was underneath an auto on jacks....
The jack slipped, the wheel of the car fell on his head and smashed his face in.....There's no delicate or genteel way to put it.
He leaves behind his wife, Veronica, 27 years old..and a son, "Pigpen, Jr", 7.
With another one on the way, due in May.
He was the last surviving member of Captain Billy's Whiz Gang. Named, by the way, for the classic magazine "Captain Billy's Whiz Bang".
Oscar "Oscy" Bain was killed in Iraq in June 2007.
Max Newton died in a boating accident in July 2008.
Churchill Davis died suddenly whilst on holidays in Oregon in August 2009.
Pigpen was one of the colleagues who flew ALL THE WAY TO ENGLAND FROM THE STATES to help Mellisa with running the studio in my absence (when I was on remand during Christmas/New Years 2008/9)
http://www.whitewomenblackmen.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12739
And he served as The Best Man at OUR wedding.
On 27 March, 2010, the last surviving member of Captain Billy's Whiz Gang died.
As I am writing this, a dispatch comes in to me from a pal in Clearwater, Florida..
Another one of our colleagues (He's been working part-time at the Publix Mart since our collective 2005 layoff from Time Warner.) was shot to death in a disgruntled employee problem just now.
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/pinellas/publix-shooting-tarpon-springs-033010
You know, we filmmakers...for the most part, anyway....are all pretty much like family, no matter what colour everyone was/is. At least those of us that worked together at Time Warner from 1998-2005.
Opinions Animation Studios has sadly and heartbreakingly had to bury two brothers.
OpinionsCartoonStudios@Yahoo.Co.UK
Yer all most likely askin' "Goddard WHO?"
You may not have known him - or even heard of him, but you HAVE....seen his work.
Amongst various and sundry duties, he served as a designer/layout artiste/animation director for Hanna-Barbera, Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, and even on Ren & Stimpy Adult Cartoon Party.
He was one of a team of a 4 man animation unit known in the business as Captain Billy's Whiz Gang.
And he was a VERY close friend of my family.
Born, bred & raised in Omaha, Nebraska, he got his (ironic) nickname, not from the "Peanuts" character 'Pig-Pen'...nor from the late Grateful Dead keyboardist Ron "Pigpen" McKernan...
But, ironically, unlike either persona....he was a *very* dapper figure...ALWAYS dressed to the 9's - either on duty or off duty..in suit and tie...or silk shirts and pressed pants (even the dungarees).....the total antithesis of what we teasingly called him.
His younger brother, Pratt (born 1982), is a film, stage, & telly actor.
Pigpen was diagnosed with cancer in 2006.
He underwent all the recuperative rigamarole...and *whipped* it..
On Saturday, 27 March, whilst pursuing his hobby - working on classic cars (He loved Ford Mustangs) - Pigpen was underneath an auto on jacks....
The jack slipped, the wheel of the car fell on his head and smashed his face in.....There's no delicate or genteel way to put it.
He leaves behind his wife, Veronica, 27 years old..and a son, "Pigpen, Jr", 7.
With another one on the way, due in May.
He was the last surviving member of Captain Billy's Whiz Gang. Named, by the way, for the classic magazine "Captain Billy's Whiz Bang".
Oscar "Oscy" Bain was killed in Iraq in June 2007.
Max Newton died in a boating accident in July 2008.
Churchill Davis died suddenly whilst on holidays in Oregon in August 2009.
Pigpen was one of the colleagues who flew ALL THE WAY TO ENGLAND FROM THE STATES to help Mellisa with running the studio in my absence (when I was on remand during Christmas/New Years 2008/9)
http://www.whitewomenblackmen.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12739
And he served as The Best Man at OUR wedding.
On 27 March, 2010, the last surviving member of Captain Billy's Whiz Gang died.
As I am writing this, a dispatch comes in to me from a pal in Clearwater, Florida..
Another one of our colleagues (He's been working part-time at the Publix Mart since our collective 2005 layoff from Time Warner.) was shot to death in a disgruntled employee problem just now.
http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/local/pinellas/publix-shooting-tarpon-springs-033010
You know, we filmmakers...for the most part, anyway....are all pretty much like family, no matter what colour everyone was/is. At least those of us that worked together at Time Warner from 1998-2005.
Opinions Animation Studios has sadly and heartbreakingly had to bury two brothers.
OpinionsCartoonStudios@Yahoo.Co.UK
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