Richard Bickenbach

• Name — Richard Bickenbach • Birth Name — Richard Frederick Bickenbach • Born — 9 August 1907 • Birthplace — Indiana, U.S. • Other Names — Dick Bickenbach • Died — 28 June 1994 • Place of death — San Bernardino, California, U.S. • Employer — Animated Pictures (1930–1936) Walter Lantz Studio (1936–1937) MGM (1937–1939, 1946–1957)

Bickenbach began his career as an animator for Ub Iwerks Studios, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio and Walter Lantz Productions until finally settling at Warner Bros. cartoon division Leon Schlesinger Productions. He would animate the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series for directors Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton, Friz Freleng, Frank Tashlin, and Robert McKimson in a span of roughly 8 years. He also provided his voice for a few cartoons, mostly portraying caricatures of Frank Sinatra. He later left and moved back to MGM in 1946 to provided layouts for roughly eighty Tom and Jerry shorts during the decade he was there. When he moved to Hanna-Barbera, he was one of their first employees and he was there for two decades as an animator and layout artist. He had a large influence on Hanna-Barbera's early cartoon styles and was credited with creating the first official Yogi Bear model sheets. He was the recipient of the 1984 Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists Golden Award.