John Frederick "Jack" Hannah

 John Frederick "Jack" Hannah (January 5, 1913 – June 11, 1994)

Hannah was an animator, writer and director of animated shorts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1931 to study at the Art Guild Academy. One of his first jobs was designing movie posters for Hollywood theaters. In 1933, during the Great Depression, Hannah dropped off his portfolio at Walt Disney Studios, and soon afterward was hired as an in-between and clean-up artist, working on Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Silly Symphony cartoons. Hannah's career as an animator commenced with the short Modern Inventions. After thirteen films in that capacity, he was assigned to the story department writing cartoon short continuities, beginning with Donald's Nephews. He received writing credit on 21 Disney cartoon shorts. After Disney stopped producing animated shorts, Hannah did 14 episodes of the Walt Disney anthology television series. Hannah then went to the Walter Lantz Studio and directed a number of films featuring Woody Woodpecker and some minor characters. Besides directing shorts, Hannah also was Assistant Director for the television series The Woody Woodpecker Show, which began airing on October 3, 1957. Hannah was honored as a "Disney Legend" in 1992.

Jack Hannah is often credited with developing, if not creating, the personality of the animated version of Donald Duck. In 1975, Hannah was one of the co-founders, along with T. Hee, of the Character Animation program at the California Institute of the Arts. Hannah died on June 11, 1994 at age 81. He is buried at Forest Lawn-Glendale .