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Cal Howard; Animator, TV Director

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Cal Howard, a cartoon animator, comedy writer and early television director, has died at the Motion Picture Country Hospital in Woodland Hills.

His son, Jack, who produces TV commercials, said his father died Friday after a long period of declining health. He was 82.

Howard, born in Los Angeles and educated at Lincoln High School, began his art career with Walt Disney in 1929, an affiliation that lasted intermittently until 1990. He worked with such pioneer animators as Walter Lantz, Leon Schlesinger and Ub Irwirks, and in 1938 was part of the animation team on Nat Fleischer’s “Gulliver’s Travels.”

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Howard moved to Metro Goldwyn Mayer in the early 1940s, and there did many of the “Tom and Jerry” and “Barney Bear” cartoons.

He also became a comedy writer for Red Skelton and Abbott and Costello, and wrote for the original late-night variety show in New York that starred Jerry Lester and Morey Amsterdam. He returned to California and worked with Ralph Edwards writing for “Truth or Consequences.”

Howard moved back and forth between animation, writing and directing in the 1960s. In 1974, he became story editor for Walt Disney Publications and retired in 1986.

In 1980, the International Animation Society/AASIFA Hollywood gave him its prized Annie Award.

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