Chuck Jones helped bring to life many characters during the Golden Age of animation including some of Warner Bros.' most famous Looney Tunes characters -- Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd and Porky Pig.

The list of characters that he himself created includes -- Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, Ralph Wolf, Sam Sheepdog, Marvin Martian, Pepe Le Pew, Gossamer, Henery Hawk, and Hugo the Abominable Snowman.

Mr. Jones has created over 300 animated films, has won three Academy Awards and has received countless awards and distinctions including two major honors in 1996. He became the first person to receive both an Honorary Oscar and the Director's Guild of America's Honorary Life Membership in the same year! His mini-epic "What's Opera, Doc?" ( July 1957 ) was the first- ever animated film to be inducted in to the National Film Registry for being "among the most culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films of our time."

Born on September 21, 1912, Chuck Jones entered the fledgling animation industry in 1932 as a cel washer at "Ubbe Iwerks Studio" having just graduated from the Chouinard Art Institute (now California Institute of the Arts.) He joined the Leon Schlesinger Studio (creators of Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies cartoons), later sold to Warner Bros., as an animator in 1936. There, Jones was assigned to Tex Avery's animation unit. In 1938, at the age of 25, he directed his first animated film "The Night Watchman." Chuck stayed at Warner Bros. Animation until it closed in 1962, though he had a brief stint with Disney Studios in 1955 during a hiatus at Warner Bros. While heading up the animation division at MGM Studios, in 1966, Jones directed one of the most memorable holiday television specials ever produced -- "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas." It first aired on Sunday, December 18, 1966. The half-hour special was met with glowing reviews from newspapers across the country and has since become one of the most beloved holiday programs on television.

At the age of 83, Chuck Jones has enjoyed more than 60 years in animation and is still hard at work, having recently signed a new contract with Warner Bros. In 1994 under the title of his new production company - "Chuck Jones Film Productions" - he created the a new Road Runner cartoon - "Chariots of Fur".

Chuck Jones introduced us to the Road Runner & Wile E. Coyote in September 1949 in the Looney Tunes cartoon "Fast and Furry-ous". It would be three years, May 1952, before Road Runner would appear again with Wile E. Coyote in "BEEP, BEEP".

Jones established a framework for the Road Runner cartoons that gave them resilience and coherence. He called this the "disciplines" that operated within these cartoons, restrictions that he consciously applied after the cartoons had found their groove. He has enumerated six of these "disciplines": The cartoons are always set in the desert of the American Southwest; the Road Runner never leaves the road; never is there dialogue; the coyote is never injured by the Road Runner; the audiences sympathy must remain with Wile E. Coyote; and the cartoons are always seen from the perspective of the Coyote.

For more information check out these books:

That's all Folks! The Art of Warner Bros. Animation
By Steve Scheider - ISBN 0-8050-0889-6

Chuck Jones - A Flurry of Drawings
By Hugh Kenner - ISBN 0-520-08797-6

Chuck Amuck
By Chuck Jones - ISBN 0-380-71214-8

BUGS BUNNY FIFTY YEARS AND ONLY ONE GREY HARE
By Joe Adamson - ISBN 0-8050-1190-0

The Great Cartoon Directors
By Jeff Lenburg - ISBN 0-306-80521-9

The 50 greatest cartoons
By Jerry Beck - ISBN 1-878685-49-X

I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty years of Sylvester & Tweety
By Jerry Beck - ISBN 0-8050-1644-9