Portrait of Richard Williams (animator)

Birthday profile

Richard Williams (animator)

Richard Williams, Canadian-English animator, director, and screenwriter (died 2019)

Born
March 19, 1933
Died
August 16, 2019
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1933

About Richard Williams (animator)

Richard Edmund Williams (né Lane; March 19, 1933 – August 16, 2019) was a Canadian and British animator, voice actor, and painter. A three-time Academy Award winner, he is best known as the animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)—for which he won two Academy Awards—and as the director of his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler (1993). His work on the short film A Christmas Carol (1971) earned him his first Academy Award. He was also a film title sequence designer and animator. Other works in this field include the title sequences for What's New Pussycat? (1965) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), title and linking sequences in The Charge of the Light Brigade, and the intros of the eponymous cartoon feline for two of the later Pink Panther films. In 2002, he published The Animator's Survival Kit, an authoritative manual of animation methods and techniques, which has since been turned into a 16-DVD box set as well as an iOS app. From 2008, he worked as an artist in residence at Aardman Animations in Bristol, and in 2015, he received both Oscar and BAFTA nominations in the best animated short category for his short film Prologue. Richard Williams Animation Ltd. eventually completed over 2,500 TV commercials, and won numerous awards, at its home at 13 Soho Square in Soho, London. In 1968 his studio won accolades for the animated segments in Tony Richardson's epic feature film about the Crimean War, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), which Williams described as "the best job I ever had".

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Richard Williams (animator) timeline

  1. In 1968 his studio won accolades for the animated segments in Tony Richardson's epic feature film about the Crimean War, The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), which Williams described as "the best job I ever had".
  2. His work on the short film A Christmas Carol (1971) earned him his first Academy Award.
  3. A three-time Academy Award winner, he is best known as the animation director of Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)—for which he won two Academy Awards—and as the director of his unfinished feature film The Thief and the Cobbler (1993).

The world when Richard Williams (animator) was born

Richard Williams (animator) was born in 1933. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1933

  • #1 song"Stormy Weather" – Ethel Waters
  • Top movieKing Kong
  • Best-selling bookLost Horizon – James Hilton

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst MLB All-Star Game played at Comiskey Park
  • Top headlineAdolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
  • Technology milestoneFM radio patented by Edwin Armstrong
  • Defining fadChain letters
  • Notable inventionFM radio
  • World population2.17 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championNew York Giants (World Series)
  • U.S. population125.6M

1933 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Richard Williams (animator)'s birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19332026
Gas$0.18$3.45/gal
Average home$4,800$435,000
Average income$2,300$67,500
Minimum wage$0.25$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.20$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population125.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.