Tedd Pierce

Edward Stacey "Tedd" Pierce III (August 12, 1906 — February 19, 1972), was an American animated cartoon writer, animator and artist. Pierce spent the majority of his career as a writer for the Warner Bros. "Termite Terrace" animation studio, working alongside fellow luminaries such as Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. Pierce also worked as a writer at Fleischer Studios from 1939 to 1941. Jones credited Pierce in his 1989 autobiography "Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist" as being the inspiration for the character Pepé Le Pew, the haplessly romantic French skunk.

In early credits he was shown as "Ted Pierce". He was said to have added an extra "d" to his name as a way of lampooning puppeteer Bil Baird when he dropped one of the Ls from his first name.

He contributed (with Bill Danch) the story of the 1962 Tom and Jerry cartoon "Tall in the Trap", directed by Gene Deitch. Originally the cartoon would have starred Sylvester the cat and Speedy Gonzales and would have been directed by Robert McKimson. However, McKimson disapproved of the storyline, and decided not to use it. Instead, Pierce sold it to Danch and Deitch, who were desperately looking for suitable storylines for Tom and Jerry.

In his Warners career, Pierce worked with all three of the three best-known Warner animation directors (Jones, McKimson and Friz Freleng). He contributed many notable storylines for all three of them, including Freleng's "Hare Do" (1949), "Bad Ol' Putty Tat" (1949), "Bunker Hill Bunny" (1950) and "Big House Bunny" (1950); Jones' "Hare Tonic" (1945, an early success for both of them) and "Broom-Stick Bunny" (1956); and McKimson's "Hillbilly Hare" (1950), "Lovelorn Leghorn" (1951) and "Cat-Tails for Two" (1953), the last of which was Speedy Gonzales' first appearance. "Lovelorn Leghorn" was notable as essentially the beginning of the love-not-really-hate relationship between Foghorn Leghorn and Miss Prissy, the latter of whom possessed indeterminate status, portrayed sometimes as an elderly spinster but other times as a widow with only her bookish son (known as Egghead Jr.), for company. However, because much of Pierce's Termite Terrace career was spent with McKimson's unit (McKimson considered the least-known Warners animation director), it would follow that Pierce was generally overshadowed by his contemporaries as story writers at Warners, Warren Foster and Maltese.

Pierce also got occasional voice work in the cartoons. He imitated Bud Abbott in three Warner cartoons casting Abbott and Costello as alley cats Babbit and Catstello. Pierce also voiced the "tall, thin" character in "Wackiki Wabbit" (1943, which he wrote for Jones), and the French chef François in "French Rarebit" (1951, which he wrote for McKimson). In addition, in a few cartoons containing Jones' Hubie and Bertie, Bertie's voice was Pierce; Hubie was voiced by Mike Maltese. Thereafter they were voiced by the principal voice actor, Mel Blanc, and Stan Freberg, who had also voiced secondary Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies duos such as the Goofy Gophers and Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier.

Tedd Pierce's own, undisguised voice (a pleasant tenor) was heard in coming-attractions trailers for Universal Pictures. Pierce enthusiastically narrated these previews of Universal Pictures' 1940s features starring Abbott and Costello, The Ritz Brothers. Maria Montez, Gloria Jean, and Donald O'Connor.