
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 27, 1995                   TAG: 9505300062
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                 LENGTH: Short

ANIMATOR FRIZ FRELENG DIES AT 89

Isadore ``Friz'' Freleng, animator of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and a host of other lovable, idiosyncratic cartoon characters, died Friday, Warner Bros. said. He was 89.

Freleng died at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center. No cause of death was released.

During his 30-year reign at Warner Bros., Freleng gave life to Sylvester and Tweety Bird, Speedy Gonzales and Yosemite Sam. He went on to create the Pink Panther after Warner closed its internal animation department in 1963. In all, he worked on more than 300 cartoons.

Freleng won Academy Awards for four of his Warner Bros. cartoons - 1947's ``Tweety Pie,'' 1955's ``Speedy Gonzalez,'' 1957's ``Birds Anonymous'' and 1958's ``Knighty Knight Bugs.'' He won a fifth Oscar for ``The Pink Phink,'' starring the Pink Panther. He also won three Emmys.

Freleng once admitted to serving as the model for his gun-slinging, brazen Yosemite Sam.

``I have the same temperament,'' Freleng said. ``I'm small, and I used to have a red mustache.''

- Associated Press

by CNB