John Halas
John Halas (born April 16, 1912 in Budapest , Austria-Hungary , † January 20 or 21, 1995 in London , United Kingdom ) was a British animator of Hungarian origin.
János Halász was born the seventh son of a Catholic father and a Jewish mother. The father of the comic artist Paul Halas was able to fall back on training in Budapest and at the Paris Academy of Fine Arts . He was a student of special effects expert and director George Pal . First he founded a film studio together with Gyula Macskássy in 1932 , which, however, failed to achieve economic success. Together with his wife Joy Batchelor , who died in 1991 and whom he met after moving to London in 1936, he ran Great Britain's largest animation studio, Halas and Batchelor Animation Ltd. , founded in 1940 . and was responsible for around 2000 animated film productions. Halas was, among other things, illustrator of the animated film The Animal Farm from 1954. His film company also produced the first fully digital animated film in 1982 called Dilemma . Other successful works were the 1952 film Die Eule und das Kitten ( The Owl and the Pussycat ) and the film Autobahn from 1979. For ZDF he produced Wilhelm Busch - The Animated Film Parade: Max and Moritz and Other Pranks (1978 ), which was commented on by Heinz Rühmann and Theo Lingen . Halas also appeared as a book author. For example, the works The Technique of Film Animation (1959), Computer Animation (1974) and Graphics in Motion (1981) come from his pen .
In 1972 he received a high medal from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the British film industry. As president of the Association internationale du film d'animation (Asifa), of which he was a founding member, he headed the fate of the association for ten years from 1975 and was ultimately its honorary president from 1985 to 1995. From 1980 to 1995 he also chaired the British Federation of Film Societies (BFFS). He also worked as an advisor to the United Nations. Halas died at the age of 82 on January 20 or 21, 1995, depending on the sources.
Web links
- John Halas in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Halas in the Encyclopædia Britannica , accessed February 21, 2012
- Biography at www.halasandbatchelor.co.uk , accessed February 21, 2012
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Halas, John |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Halász, János (Hungarian name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British animator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 16, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Budapest |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 20, 1995 or January 21, 1995 |
| Place of death | London |