Irven Spence (April 24, 1909 - September 21, 1995) was an American animator. He is best known for his work on MGM's Tom and Jerry animated shorts.
Biography[]
Spence's interest in drawing began in his youth, when he provided cartoons for his high school newspaper (along with classmate William Hanna). Spence's earliest animation work was for Charles B. Mintz's Winkler Pictures, and then for Ub Iwerks, where he worked on the Flip the Frog series.
After Iwerks Studio folded in 1936, Spence worked at Leon Schlesinger Productions (after 1944, known as Warner Bros. Cartoons) as an animator in Tex Avery's animation unit. There, he brought an eccentric drawing/animation style to already irreverent animated films. He later moved to Metro Goldwyn Mayer's cartoon department in 1938, starting with The Captain and the Kids cartoons, some of which were directed by Bill Hanna and Friz Freleng. Spence animated for Milt Gross (on the Count Screwloose cartoons), Hugh Harman, and for the Bill Hanna/Joe Barbera unit. Spence also animated Tex Avery's first four cartoons (Blitz Wolf, The Early Bird Dood It!, Dumb-Hounded and Red Hot Riding Hood) following Avery's arrival at the studio in 1942, before moving over to the Hanna/Barbera unit again. Spence's first credit in a Tom and Jerry short was in The Yankee Doodle Mouse (1943), which received an Academy Award for Best Animated Short; Spence would continue to work on the series, albeit discontinuously, until his final departure from MGM in 1956, with his final credit appearing on 1957's Timid Tabby.
Spence, during his time at MGM, would also directed two live-action spoof films, Rats in Spats in 1941, and Rugged Rangers in 1942. Both films star various staff members who worked in the studio at the time, such as Bill Littlejohn, Pete Burness, Michael Lah, Ray Patterson, Jack Zander, and Ed Barge among others. Spence would briefly leave the studio in the mid-40s to work for John Sutherland Productions, but later returned in 1947. He left MGM again in August 1956 for Animation, Inc., a commercial production studio, before joining his former bosses at Hanna-Barbera Productions seven years later.