José Cuauhtemoc "Bill" Meléndez (born on November 15, 1916 in Hermosillo, Mexico) is a Mexican-born American character animator, film director, and film producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers and the Peanuts series. Melendez provided the voice of Snoopy and Woodstock in the latter as well.
A native of the Mexican town of Hermosillo, Melendez was educated in public schools in Douglas, Arizona and later in Los Angeles at the Chouinard Art Institute (which would later become California Institute of the Arts).
In 1938, Melendez was hired by Walt Disney to work on animated short films and feature-length films such as Bambi, Fantasia, and Dumbo. Three years later, he joined Leon Schlesinger's team at the Warner Brothers studios, where, as a member of the Bob Clampett and Art Davis units, he animated on a number of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck shorts. UPA put him on their payroll in 1948 to work on many television commercials, as well as the Gerald McBoing-Boing and Madeline shorts.
After a decade at two smaller production houses, Melendez founded his own production company in 1964. Bill Melendez Productions helped produce the annually broadcast Christmas special A Charlie Brown Christmas, for which he won an Emmy Award and the George Foster Peabody Award despite having to work on short notice and with a tight budget. Melendez performed the voice of Snoopy, who normally in the specials does not talk.
Melendez has gone on to do over 75 half-hour Peanuts specials, including the 1989 miniseries This is America, Charlie Brown, as well as four feature-length motion pictures - all with partner Lee Mendelson.
In 1979, he directed a made-for-TV animated version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with Warner Bros. for the Children's Television Workshop.
Amongst the other comic strip characters he has animated are Cathy and Garfield, as well as the 1992 special Frosty Returns.
In addition to animation, Melendez was once a faculty member at the University of Southern California's Cinema Arts Department. He currently resides in Los Angeles.
He is Chimendez" target="_blank">parodied in the online cartoon _Homestar Runner. So in all he has won 2 awards.
