Howard Beckerman – RIP

Animator and animation teacher Howard Beckerman has passed away.

J.J. Sedelmaier informed the community at large that Howard Beckerman’s daughter announced his death yesterday:

Howard Beckerman’s daughter Sheri Beckerman Weisz just posted this: “It is with great sadness to report that my father, Howard Beckerman passed away early this morning.”

From the funeral home obituary:

During his long and storied career as an animator, writer, and director Howard worked on Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle, Popeye, and Winky-Dink (among others) for Terrytoons and Paramount Famous Studios. Through his own company, he created films for Sesame Street and national advertisers. He wrote over 500 articles for trade magazines and was most proud of the widely praised book he authored, Animation: The Whole Story, a compendium of his decades of knowledge and experience.

Howard Beckerman is a New York animator who worked at Terrytoons and the now legendary Famous Studios.

Excerpts from a 1991 Animator magazine profile:

… This revelation happened in 1949 when Howard, fresh from high-school, was hired by none other than Paul Terry himself to join the famed Terrytoons, starting as office boy, then progressing to inker, painter and inbetweener.

Inspired by the goings-on at Terrytoons, young Beckerman took an evening class in animation at a local New York college, much to the Terry artists’ bemusement who couldn’t figure out why anyone who worked all day in an animation studio should want to study the subject in his own time.

The class instructor, Irving Spector, informed Howard of a job going at Famous Studios for an inbetweener paying $5.00 more than he was getting at Terrytoons ($30.00).

Famous was managed by ex-Fleischer’s chief animator (and son-in-law), Seymour Kneitel, along with two Fleischer production managers, Isadore Sparber and Sam Buchwald, and employed the best percentage of Fleischer’s former artistic staff.

Having spent two years at Famous under his teacher and mentor “Spec” Spector, young Howard Beckerman received an ill-timed “Call-up” in 1951 and had to leave the studio in favour of the armed services, returning to Paramount’s cartoon division in 1966 when things had changed drastically… unfortunately, not for the better.

Famous Studios, by now, was the sole property of Paramount; renamed, not unsurprisingly, Paramount Cartoons.

Howard Beckerman arrived with Shamus Culhane’s outfit when he was called upon to breathe life into a dying art form… theatrical cartoons… without spending too much money.

The Trip is a 1966 short written and animated by Howard Beckerman, co-designed by Howard and Gil Miret, co-directed by Howard and Shamus Culhane, with music by Winston Sharples.

There are no voices or sound effects in this cartoon. All of the mood and nuance of the on screen action is conveyed via Winston Sharples’ music score.

Watch The Trip here with commentary by Howard.

A partial filmography from MUBI. The Howard Beckerman filmography at IMDb.

Howard has also spent decades as an animation instructor.

Howard Beckerman is an animator, a historian and a professor. For over 40 years, he has been contributing expertise and joy to the art of animation at The School of Visual Arts. Currently he teaches classes in animation, storyboard and history of animation, and he also advises thesis students.

Ten years ago family, friends, colleagues, and students paid loving tribute to Howard.

From 2011 an ASIFA-East interview with Howard.

Howard dipped his toe into syndicated comic strips.

In the late 1950s Howard teamed with Carl Memling to take a stab at syndicating a comic strip. When Miss Chipps didn’t get any syndicate offers they sold it to Sponsored Comics/Family Comics.

Allan Holtz interviewed Howard about the comic strip.

Edited July 1, 2024 to included the obituaries/remembrances below and the funeral home obituary at the top.

Ramin Zahed at Animation Magazine has published their obituary for Howard.

At Cartoon Research Jerry Beck remembers; and Devon Baxter presents Beckerman gag cartoons from the New York Union newsletter, TOP CEL, and a few animated shorts written or designed by Howard.