Tom and Jerry director, animator Gene Deitch passes away at 95

Gene Deitch, Oscar-winning animator, illustrator and filmmaker known in part for his work in Tom and Jerry and Popeye the Sailor cartoons has died. He was 95.

News of Deitch’s passing was confirmed by his Czech publisher, Petr Himmel, who said that Deitch died unexpectedly on Thursday night at his home in Prague’s Little Quarter neighborhood. No additional details or cause of death were given.

Deitch’s movie “Munro” won the Oscar Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1960. The legendry animator was also nominated for the same award twice in 1964 for “Here’s Nudnik” and “How to Avoid Friendship.”

Earlier, he had created the “Tom Terrific” series, while the “Sidney’s Family Tree,” which he co-produced was nominated for an Oscar Award in 1958.

Born Aug. 8, 1924, in Chicago, Deitch arrived in Prague in 1959 planning to stay for 10 days, but fell in love with his future wife, Zdenka, and stayed in the Czechoslovakian capital.

Working from behind the Iron Curtain, he directed 13 episodes of “Tom and Jerry” and also some of the “Popeye the Sailor” series.

He captured life in communist Czechoslovakia and later in the Czech Republic after the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution in his memoirs “For the Love of Prague.”

Deitch, in 2004  received the Winsor McCay Award for his lifelong contribution to animation.

He is survived by his wife and by three sons from his first marriage, all of whom are cartoonists and illustrators.