Michael Maltese (February 6, 1908 New York – February 22, 1981) was a cartoon scriptwriter and storyboard artist.
Biography
In 1941, Maltese was hired by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which three years later became Warner Bros. . Cartoons, Inc. (Maltese appeared in a cartoon of Porky pig as Warner Brothers, entitled guard You Ought to Be In Pictures). Starting in the late 1940s, he worked exclusively with director Chuck Jones, and the two created winning the Academy Award For Scent-imental Reasons (1949) and public security, So Much For So Little that same year won the “Oscar for best short documentary” animated documentary shorts. Alongside Jones created the characters Pepé le Pew and El Coyote and Road Runner.
Some of his early works include Bear Feat (1949), The Rabbit of Seville (1950) and Rabbit Fire (1951). His most famous works are Feed the Kitty (1952), Beep, Beep (1952), Rabbit Seasoning (1952), Don’t Give up the Sheep (1953), Duck Amuck (1953), Bully for Bugs (1953), Bewitched Bunny (1954), From A to Z-Z – Z-Z (1954), and Beanstalk Bunny (1955). He also worked on One Froggy Evening (1955), the first appearance of Michigan j. Frog.
Some of his later works were Ali Baba Bunny (1957), Robin Hood Daffy (1958), What’s Opera, Doc? (1957) and Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (1953). Maltese also collaborated with Jones on series television for the years 1960, Tom and Jerry. Between 1958 and 1970, he worked for Hanna-Barbera Productions in cartoons for television as The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones and The Jetsons.