Revision 490741300 of "Jerry Beck" on enwiki

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{{Infobox person
| image         =
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| caption       = 
| birthname     = 
| birth_date    = {{birth date and age|1955|2|9|mf=yes}}
| birth_place   = 
| alma_mater    = [[School of Visual Arts]]
| yearsactive   = 1978-present
| occupation    = Animation historian, writer
}}
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'''Jerry Beck''' (born February 9, 1955) is a well-known [[Animated cartoon|animation]] historian,<ref name="urlU.S. anime industry mourns pioneers death - Hawaii Features - Starbulletin.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.starbulletin.com/features/20100425_US_anime_industry_mourns_pioneers_death.html |title=U.S. anime industry mourns pioneer's death - Hawaii Features - Starbulletin.com |work= |accessdate=2010-04-27}}</ref> with ten books and numerous articles to his credit. He is also an animation producer, an industry consultant to [[Warner Bros.]], and has been an executive with [[Nickelodeon (TV channel)|Nickelodeon]] and [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]].

==Biography==
Jerry Beck graduated John Bowne High School in Queens, New York City, where he was a member of the staff of OPUS, the school's yearbook. While at Bowne, he was also developing his own comic art style as well as a keen interest in animated films and film in general. After high school, Beck studied at The [[School of Visual Arts]] in [[New York City]] intent on becoming a great animator. But his interest in animation's history led him to working with [[Leonard Maltin]], becoming his 'research associate' on the landmark book, ''Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons''. In the course of doing this work, Beck became well versed in the histories and films of every Hollywood cartoon studio.

===Early career===
Beck began his career in the film industry at [[United Artists]] in 1978, working with the [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer|MGM/UA]] film library as a salesman in the non-theatrical division.

In 1981, Beck teamed with colleague [[Will Friedwald]] to produce the filmography "The Warner Brothers (''sic'') Cartoons", published by [[Scarecrow Press]]. In 1984 Beck joined [[Orion Pictures|Orion Classics]], becoming an expert at theatrical distribution.

===Expanded Entertainment===
His interest in animation and knowledge of film distribution brought him to the attention of Terry Thoren's Expanded Entertainment company in 1986. With Beck's expertise, Expanded began distributing the ''[[International Tournee of Animation]]'', ''The Festival of Claymation'' and ''The Puppetoon Movie'' to theatres. At Expanded, Beck helped organize two animation festivals (Los Angeles Animation Celebration in 1987 and 1989) and was instrumental in the creation of ''[[Animation Magazine]]''. In addition to his writing for ''Animation Magazine'', Beck has contributed to ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'', ''[[Hollywood Reporter]]'', ''Video Business'', ''The Whole Toon Catalog'', ''Animation Blast'', ''[[Animato]]'', ''[[Wild Cartoon Kingdom]]'' and the on-line ''Animation World Magazine''.

===Warner Bros.===
===Teacher===
Recognized as an authority on animation, Beck taught a nine week course at the UCLA Extension on "Animation: The State Of The Art" in 1992 and conducted seminars on "The History of the Hollywood Cartoon" for the [[American Film Institute]] in 1994. In 1995 Beck taught "The History of Animation" at NYU and in the spring of 1996 taught "Promotion for Animation" at the [[School of Visual Arts]]. He was a founding member of the [[Cartoon Network]] advisory board in 1993, and serves on the board of directors of [[ASIFA-Hollywood]], a chapter of (The [[International Animated Film Association]]).

===The 1990s===
In the 1990s, Beck co-produced a successful series of laser disc compilations for MGM/UA Home Video, which included ''The Golden Age of Looney Tunes'', ''The Compleat Tex Avery'' and ''The Art of Tom & Jerry'' and he has programmed over 100 video tape collections. He has been an animation consultant to [[Walt Disney Home Video]], [[Warner Home Video]], [[Rhino Records]] and [[Republic Pictures|Republic Entertainment]] (curating the best-selling ''[[Betty Boop]]: The Definitive Collection'').

More recently, Beck compiled the 15 volume sets of ''Looney Tunes: The Collector’s Edition'' and ''Woody Woodpecker and Friends: The Collectors Edition'' for Columbia House. He also co-produced ''Somewhere in Dreamland: The Definitive Max Fleischer Color Classics'' for VCI Entertainment. He is now a consulting producer for the annual DVD compilation ''[[Looney Tunes Golden Collection]]''.

===Streamline Pictures===
In 1989, Beck partnered with producer Carl Macek to form [[Streamline Pictures]]. Streamline was the first company devoted to importing Japanese animation and distributing anime to North American theatres, television and home video. Among Streamline's many titles were ''[[Akira (film)|Akira]]'', ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'', ''[[Vampire Hunter D]]'', ''[[Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water]]'', ''[[Wicked City]]'', ''[[Robotech]]'', and ''[[Robot Carnival]]''. Beck also co-produced the 1993 Fox English language version of ''[[My Neighbor Totoro]]'' and compiled ''[[Speed Racer|Speed Racer: The Movie]]'' for Family Home Entertainment.

Beck parted with Streamline in 1993 to pursue other areas of animation. He became Executive Producer of ''[[The Baby Huey Show]]'' for [[Harvey Entertainment|The Harvey Entertainment Co.]] Beck then joined [[Nickelodeon Movies]] as Vice President of Animation, under a three year contract. At Nickelodeon, Beck was instrumental in developing ''[[The Rugrats Movie]]'', and ''[[Mighty Mouse]]'' and ''[[The Stinky Cheese Man]]'' (both which weren't finished).

===Late 1990s===
From September 1997 through April 1998, Beck had an exclusive consulting and development deal with [[Walt Disney Television Animation]]. Also in 1997, Beck formed Cartoon Research Co. to write books, consult on animation projects, compile [[Compact disc|CD]]'s, [[DVD]]'s and home video products, supply cartoon stock footage and develop new features and TV series.

In 1999, Beck produced ''Totally Tooned In'' for [[Columbia TriStar Television|Columbia Tri-Star International Television]], a 65 episode series that restored the Columbia theatrical cartoon library; and for [[Cartoon Network]] wrote and co-produced the special ''Toonheads: The Lost Cartoons''.

Beck was co-creator, co-producer and co-writer of ''Karen and Kirby'' for Warner Bros. TV Animation. 13 ''Karen and Kirby'' interstitials were produced and were shown on Kids WB's ''[[The Big Cartoonie Show]]''.

===Writer===
Beck was the West Coast Bureau Chief for ''[[KidScreen]]'' magazine for one year (July 2000 through July 2001), and co-wrote the Cartoon Network special ''Toonheads: The Wartime Cartoons'' (which aired 7/1/01 and received a modest 2.3 rating). Beck also co-wrote ''Toonheads: The 12 Missing Hares'' and ''Toonheads: The Worst Cartoons Ever'' (both projects were shelved). In 2002, Beck became a writer/producer for Rubberbug Animation, which produced an award winning educational DVD project named ''algebra'school''.

Beck had two more books published in 2003: ''Outlaw Animation'' and ''Looney Tunes: The Ultimate Visual Guide''.

In 2004, Beck was General Editor of Animation Art, and wrote two more books which were published in 2005: ''The Animated Movie Guide'' and ''Pink Panther: the Ultimate Visual Guide''.

===Current activities===
Beck's six minute cartoon short ''Hornswiggle'', produced by [[Frederator Studios]], aired as part of the ''Random Cartoons'' series December  20, 2008 on [[Nicktoons Network]]. He collaborates with Mystery Science Theater's [[Frank Conniff]] to produce ''Cartoon Dump'' on the Web and as a monthly live comedy show at [[The Steve Allen Theater]] in Hollywood. An annual show of Worst Cartoons has become a Friday night staple of [[Comic-Con International]], drawing an audience of over a thousand to watch Beck's latest selection of terrible but commercially distributed television cartoon series episodes (mostly drawn from low budget 1960s syndicated programs).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|id=0065175|name=Jerry Beck}}
* [http://www.cartoonresearch.com Jerry Beck's Cartoon Research.com]
* [http://www.cartoonbrew.com Jerry Beck's blog]
* [http://www.cartoondump.com/ Cartoon Dump]
* [http://www.rembrandtfilms.com/worst-cartoons-ever.htm Worst Cartoon DVD]

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see [[Wikipedia:Persondata]]. -->
| NAME              = Beck, Jerry
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
| SHORT DESCRIPTION =
| DATE OF BIRTH     = February 9, 1955
| PLACE OF BIRTH    =
| DATE OF DEATH     =
| PLACE OF DEATH    =
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Jerry}}
[[Category:1955 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Animation historians]]