Walter Lantz Productions

Walter Lantz assumed control of Universal's in-house cartoon unit in 1929, taking over the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit character, which Walt Disney had previously lost due to a contract dispute. In 1935, Lantz restructured the arrangement by forming Walter Lantz Productions as an independent studio that distributed its cartoons through Universal while retaining ownership of its characters, a strategic decision that allowed him to remain financially stable long after many of his competitors went out of business.

Andy Panda was the first character to emerge from the studio, but its most enduring creation came in 1940: Woody Woodpecker, a high-energy, cackling bird initially voiced by Mel Blanc and later by Grace Stafford, Lantz's wife, for decades. Woody's distinctive, rapid-fire laugh became one of the most recognizable sounds in American animation, and he headlined a lineup that also featured Chilly Willy the penguin and a reimagined Oswald.

Lantz was known for his resilience. As other major animation studios of the golden age shut down in the 1950s and 1960s due to the rise of television and the decline of theatrical shorts, he maintained a small, efficient operation, reusing footage and working within tight budgets. He remained the last major American producer still making cartoon shorts for movie theaters.

The economic realities of the industry eventually overtook him. By the early 1970s, theatrical shorts were no longer profitable, and in 1972, Lantz ceased production, marking the true end of the theatrical-cartoon era that had begun fifty years earlier. In 1979, the Academy awarded him an honorary Oscar for his lifetime of work, a fitting tribute for the man who had outlasted his peers.