RAY PATTERSON

'Ray Patterson' (November 23, 1911 - December 30, 2001) was an American animator.
Patterson was born in Hollywood, California. He began working in animation in 1929 for Charles B. Mintz, where he remained for ten years. In 1940 he moved to Walt Disney Studio, where he provided artwork for ''Dumbo'' and ''Fantasia'', as well as several Pluto shorts (''Bone Trouble'' and ''Pluto's Playmate'').
Patterson left Disney in 1941 to work at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he was assigned to the Hanna-Barbera unit. Patterson worked with this unit for over twenty years, though he occasionally provided animation for Dick Lundy and Tex Avery's unit. He worked on several Academy Award winning animation shorts: ''Mouse Trouble'' (1944), ''Quiet Please!'' (1945), ''The Little Orphan'' (1948), and ''Johann Mouse'' (1952).
Patterson left MGM in 1954 to co-found (with former MGM colleague Grant Simmons) Grantray-Lawrence Animation, which he operated until 1967. GrantRay-Lawrence's early work was providing animation for television commercials, but later moved on to producing such animated television series as ''Spider-Man'' and ''The Marvel Superheroes.''
After GrantRay-Lawrence folded Patterson joined his former bosses at Hanna-Barbera, where he worked as a supervising director on several animated television series. Patterson was eventually promoted to Vice President in charge of animation direction, a position he held until his retirement in 1993.
Patterson was awarded the 1999 Winsor McCay Award by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood for his lifetime of contributions to the animation field.
On December 30th 2001 (nine months after the passing of William Hanna) Patterson died of natural causes, in Encino, California. Patterson's brother Don Patterson was also an animator.

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★ Death notice at the Animation Guild website