Commentary 22 Aug 2012 08:03 am

Tissa David 1921-2012


Tissa David was 91 last January.

Tissa David died last night.

In the past month, it was discovered that Tissa had a tumor which formed on her brain and was growing rapidly. She went home from the hospital, rather than experience a difficult operation, which she, at the age of 91, wouldn’t survive. It would be better to go out gracefully.

I visited her several times a week, if I could. Our conversations amounted to my being as cheerful as possible remembering as much as I could and discussing old friends and good times. I tried to sound as gossipy as I could, and Tissa enjoyed that. We also talked about animation: the mechanics of animation and different styles of animation. Her memory was clear as long as I was talking. When she tried to answer a question, the memory didn’t work, and Tissa would just say, “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Last night, while I was out, her good friend and caretaker, Susan Davis, called leaving a message for me to return her call to Tissa’s apartment. I had intended to visit Tissa again today, Wednesday.

Tissa died yesterday evening, August 21st, in her Manhattan apartment at 7:35 PM.

______________________________________

To give some background information about Tissa David, I’m reposting this Millimeter article that John Canemaker wrote in 1975. I’ve added some to it.

- The 1975 issue of Millimeter Magazine is an animation issue. There are a number of enormously informative articles. I was rereading a copy of the magazine, this past weekend, when I came across the Close Up section, wherein a couple of bios appear.

I’d like to show one for Tissa David that was included. I assumed John Canemaker authored the piece; there is no byline. When I asked him, he responded thus: “I wrote the article on Tissa. The quotes are from my first formal interview with her. It was for Millimeter when I was the animation editor and put together special animation issues.”

Tissa looks so young in that photo.

TISSA DAVID
    “I am a frustrated comedienne, for sure,” Tissa David will tell you, only if you ask. “I am a clown. If I weren’t shy, I’d probably be on the stage.” Instead she is an animator, one of the world’s best and busiest, and one of the few women to have reached the top in the traditionally male-dominated animated cartoon field.

    She joyfully toils in her East-Side New York apartment, a warm, plant-filled place that often smells of baked apples. Classical music swirls quietly from a radio and the glow cast from the light under her animation board gives her the look of a sorceress.

    The lady has class—a fact one gathers upon first meeting, but a fact that is reaffirmed by catching a look at the creatures she is conjuring to life on her drawing board. The graphic line is strong and free, yet elegant (as is the artist); and when the drawings are flipped, the creatures move through their paces with a deliciously droll humor, a wit that is uniquely Tissa David’s.

    As a child in her native Hungary, Tissa saw Disney’s SNOW WHITE and thought (as so many others have thought after experiencing that film masterpiece), “Now this is something I want to do.” After graduating from art school, she became an assistant animator at Magyar Film Iroda in Budapest; a little more than a year later, in 1945, she was a co-owner of the Studio Mackassy and Trsi supervising all phases of production including story and camera and was sole animator of the puppet and cartoon films.

    She left Hungary in 1950 during the height of the Stalin regime, and finally landed in Paris.

    Jean Image Productions hired her in September 1951 and for two years she read sound tracks, planned layouts, animated, and did the entire editing of the feature-length, BONJOUR PARIS (1953). That studio closed and Tissa animated at La Comete next, a studio that had been Paul Grimault’s.

    “I had absolutely no relatives outside of Hungary except in the United States. So I asked for a visa in 1950. It took at that time five years to get a visa, that was still the quota system. So I came to New York…I loved the U.P.A. cartoons. I decided I wanted to work in that studio.” In 1956, the United Productions of America’s New York Studio was the last tenant in a brownstone on Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street slated to be torn down for the construction of the 666 Tishman Building. There was a French girl in the UPA studio and so she introduced me,” Tissa recalls. “I had no sample reel. I went in once to make a sort of tryout. I was scared; I didn’t speak English, so I was just waiting, waiting, and Grim came by…Grim Natwick is the history of animation and I can rave about him. He created Betty Boop and animated the character of Snow White all the way through. UPA had an awful lot of work and they needed an assistant to Grim.”

    At that initial meeting, Natwick boomed, “Now, you know what animation is!” Tissa quietly answered, “Animation is—animation.” Natwick laughed, “You can’t argue with that!” and thus began a professional partnership that lasted twelve years. “Isn’t it strange,” says Tissa today, “that SNOW WHITE got me into animation and I really learned my animation from Grim. I know a great deal about animation, I know I know, because even today I don’t do one line without something in my brain Grim told me.”

    After UPA closed in 1958, Tissa and Grim freelanced as a team on countless TV commercials, and since Grim’s retirement, Tissa has soloed successfully and most notably on several John Hubley projects, i.s.: Of Demons and Men (1970), Eggs (1970), Children’s Television Workshop segments Cool Pool Fool, True Blue Sue, Truth Ruth and others, and Cockaboody (1973). Her latest animations include three CTW Letterman episodes, a scene in Shamus Culhane’s Noah’s Ark production, and over 110 feet of Hubley’s Bicentennial film, People, People, People. She has just completed some experimental animation fora Dick Williams project and is now starting, also for Hubley, a TV special based on Erik Erikson’s writings.

    A description of Tissa David’s style of animation is difficult; for while it is a distillation of the Disney influence in timing, the UPA sense of humor-through-graphic-design, and the strong, poetic John Hubley mode, it also contains a different character, unique to Tissa David, that she calls the “female difference…If the same scene is animated by a man and by me, there will be a great difference, not in quality but in interpretation. John Hubley told me I have a fine sense for detail, not in the drawing itself because I make very loose drawings, but in a scene, in expressing feelings. I am a very intuitive animator—I never know when I sit down to work what will happen.”

    For all her gentleness, Tissa also contains an inner core of strength exhibited in her single-minded devotion to her art. Her opinions about that art, herself and other topics, is disarmingly to-the-point: “I believe very strongly that one must know how to draw,” she will offer on the subject of how-to-animate. “Even if you just animate objects, you must have a knowledge of drawing.” As for her struggles securing her place in animation, Tissa will admit, “…its very hard. Women can find work in animation if they have enough will to follow through and really do it. Even today, I’m always saying if I keep busy long enough, I will become a good animator.”

At the time this piece was written, Tissa was completing work on a pilot for Dick Williams’ film, Raggedy Ann & Andy; this one minute piece got Dick the film over Joe Oriolo and Shamus Culhane. She would thereafter work on John Hubley’s Doonsebury Special (just as he died mid film); and she was to animate for R.O.Blechman’s Simple Gifts.

Since that article was written, Tissa had animated a good part of The Soldier’s Tale for Bob Blechman. It won the EMMY Award. For me she worked on many of my half hour shows. The Marzipan Pig was made from her storyboard, and she animated the entire half hour film.

I’ll write a longer piece in a few days and will add some photographs.

Needless to say, this is very sad for me.

53 Responses to “Tissa David 1921-2012”

  1. on 22 Aug 2012 at 8:22 am 1.Richard O'Connor said …

    She was the greatest.

    Hardly anything more to say. Her life and work are gift to us all.

  2. on 22 Aug 2012 at 8:26 am 2.Thad said …

    What horrible news to find on one of my daily visits here. Tissa was a 100% original. The medium just lost a lot of vitality. R.I.P.

  3. on 22 Aug 2012 at 8:32 am 3.Tim Rauch said …

    Very sorry to hear it. I know this is more than the loss of one of the great animators, she was a dear friend to you.

    I’m grateful for all of your efforts to share her brilliant work over the years. Her work is a truly beautiful.

  4. on 22 Aug 2012 at 8:38 am 4.Mark Mayerson said …

    No matter how you look at it, this is a great loss.

  5. on 22 Aug 2012 at 8:58 am 5.Candy Kugel said …

    In a year of losses, this one is no less heavy for me. She was my idol– the lone female animator in New York when I aspired to be one. And my heart goes out to you, knowing how close she was to you. May she rest in peace.

  6. on 22 Aug 2012 at 9:11 am 6.Charles Brubaker said …

    My condolences. What a great loss.

  7. on 22 Aug 2012 at 10:16 am 7.David Nethery said …

    We have lost one of the great ones. She has always been an inspiration to me. I can’t add much more to what others have said above. My deepest sympathies to you , Michael .

  8. on 22 Aug 2012 at 10:35 am 8.miguel said …

    Deep condolences from Spain, Michael. Such a great animator and excellent person!
    What a loss…

  9. on 22 Aug 2012 at 10:41 am 9.Doug said …

    So sorry to hear this news. I have learned of her from your site Michael. You have held a light up to her work and your affection for her always comes through in your writing about her. My condolences for your loss Mr. Sporn.

  10. on 22 Aug 2012 at 10:55 am 10.Pierre said …

    I never met Tissa, Michael. However, because of your obvious affection towards her, and your continued showcasing of her work throughout your wonderful blog, I feel like I’ve come to know her.

    I’m terribly sorry for your personal loss as well as to the loss to the animation community.

    Pierre

  11. on 22 Aug 2012 at 10:55 am 11.richard o'connor said …

    Long, long ago an editor at The Ink Tank (probably Dave Courter) showed me a faux documentary by -I think- John Moynihan which starred Tissa as a Golden Age studio animator.

    I wonder if there are any copies of this around. I don’t remember much about it other than that her performance was hilarious.

  12. on 22 Aug 2012 at 10:58 am 12.Eric DY Lee said …

    15 years ago when I visit her place in NY, I promised Tissa that I would bring a red rose for the next vist instead of cakes. I still remember that day’s great lessons from her. She will be remembered as a great artist, master animator, great teacher and a beautiful lady. Rest in peace, Tissa.

  13. on 22 Aug 2012 at 11:07 am 13.Janet Benn said …

    Dear Michael,

    I felt stabbed in the heart when I read the headline about Tissa’s passing. The tears came. For all the years I spent in NY, Tissa was there. When I started at Hubley’s, she was there – and at “Raggedy Ann + Andy” and ASIFA-East, and R.O. Blechman’s. Especially on the “Soldier’s Tale” we all gathered to watch the marvel of the scene in the snow when the soldier comes home, and looks in cottage windows to see the warmth inside.

    She helped me so much, though few knew about it. Her life is, to me, a lesson on how you make your own happiness, as she never seemed down, after all the setbacks she suffered. I see her in her small apartment, I imagine her in her Provencal tower – she is with Grim, and John now, and her many friends from around the world. There was no one like her.

    Michael, thank you for being with her those later days – I know how much you loved and valued her, and it must have hurt you terribly. You did us all a great service to talk about her here, and tell people who she was, who wouldn’t know otherwise. There are no more words to say.

  14. on 22 Aug 2012 at 11:22 am 14.Sue said …

    Words escape me. Her grace, sensitivity and elegance shone through her animation. She was an incredible woman … an inspiration … and truly a great loss.

    I wish I could have visited her once more to thank her for all she shared.

  15. on 22 Aug 2012 at 11:38 am 15.anik said …

    Sorry to hear. Have been following your posts about her – remarkable person, great talent.

  16. on 22 Aug 2012 at 11:55 am 16.Jeaux Janovsky said …

    So sorry for your loss Michael. I will watch my copy of Raggedy Anne & Andy in Tissa’s honor. Tissa shone thru as Raggedy Anne. Completely.
    We lost another great.
    Hope she is doodling and dancing w/ Corny Cole up in heaven…

  17. on 22 Aug 2012 at 12:04 pm 17.Yvette Kaplan said …

    Absolutely broken-hearted. I have so much to say and yet can’t say a word. Tissa was animation’s soul.

  18. on 22 Aug 2012 at 12:10 pm 18.Eugene said …

    Tissa was my dearest mentor, constant inspiration, and true friend. I am so deeply grateful for her extraordinary generosity of spirit over the years. She was one of the greatest animation artists in the history of the medium, and she was eager to share her gifts with others. Tissa encouraged us to work, indeed to live, from the inside out–from the heart.

    We are thankful for your long presence among us, Tissa, and we will miss you terribly. God bless your soul. May you now rest in Peace.

  19. on 22 Aug 2012 at 12:16 pm 19.Dan Haskett said …

    Mike, I just got the news from J.J. I know how much you loved her, and I’m so very, very sorry for your personal loss. I loved her, too…I don’t think she realized what a mentor she was to me, even though I told her so. I think I learned more about drawing from that woman than from any other person.

    Please know my heart goes out to you.

    –Dan

  20. on 22 Aug 2012 at 12:18 pm 20.Tissa David passed away said …

    [...] L’animatrice Tissa David è morta, all’età di 91 anni, il 21 agosto 2012. Potete scoprire di più su di lei facendo click qui e qui. [...]

  21. on 22 Aug 2012 at 12:27 pm 21.David Levy said …

    Rest in peace, Tissa. What a legacy you’ve left behind.
    I’m so grateful to have met her over the years and to have seen her honored at events in her lifetime. So sorry for your personal loss,
    Michael. Thinking of you and wishing you strength at this sad time.

  22. on 22 Aug 2012 at 12:37 pm 22.Stephen Macquignon said …

    Truly a sad day my thought are with you Michael.
    Tissa was one of a kind. I am happy I got to work on her animation.
    I remember Tissa gently critiquing the calendar artwork we made.

  23. on 22 Aug 2012 at 12:46 pm 23.phillip schopper said …

    My condolences, Michael. This is a great loss for all and I know a deeply personal one for you. We should all wish to have so dear and tireless friend as you as we approach our own time.
    Tissa was a fine and uniquely gifted artist. I feel privileged to have known her even as little as I did.

  24. on 22 Aug 2012 at 1:06 pm 24.Phil Rynda said …

    My condolences. Tissa’s work, which I first discovered here on your blog, has remained a constant source of inspiration. Truly a great loss for the animation community.

  25. on 22 Aug 2012 at 1:15 pm 25.Tom Sito said …

    A good life, well lived. It was a privilege to known her, and to have learned from her. I tell my students about her and the things she taught me. So her body is dust, but through everyone she touched and inspired, her spirit will live on.

  26. on 22 Aug 2012 at 1:31 pm 26.Courtney said …

    Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers is one of my favorite Raggedy Ann and Andy scenes. Very sad RIP

  27. on 22 Aug 2012 at 1:33 pm 27.In Memoriam: Tissa David (1921-2012) | ASIFA-East aNYmator said …

    [...] Michael Sporn visited Tissa frequently over the last few weeks and has included John Canemaker’s 1975 interview for Millimeter Magazine on his splog today.  Check his blog in the next week or so for more information and reflection about his dear friend. [...]

  28. on 22 Aug 2012 at 1:44 pm 28.Margaret Williams said …

    Sad news for us all, but I’m so grateful to have known her and enjoyed her talent and warm friendship.

  29. on 22 Aug 2012 at 2:07 pm 29.Tom said …

    Tissa is an inspiration to all. Her animation is so full of life and it seemed, based on Michael’s blog posts over the years, that she was too.

  30. on 22 Aug 2012 at 2:26 pm 30.Jason McDonald said …

    A sad day for artists everywhere. Rest in Peace Tissa. You will be missed.

  31. on 22 Aug 2012 at 2:26 pm 31.Tony Eastman said …

    I was really saddened to hear of Tissa’s passing. I got to know her while working as an animator at the Ink Tank. In many ways, during that period, I felt as though I was a student of hers. I was struggling with an early Ink Tank job – Dick Tracy for Yoplait Yogurt. Tissa said to me “Dick Tracy… he is a detective!”

    After that I would always think… you must first put yourself into the character … then pick up a pencil… I will really miss Tissa.

  32. on 22 Aug 2012 at 2:49 pm 32.Matthew Clinton said …

    I remember one of the very first things I had to do when I started working at Michael’s studio was to take a package of animation paper and some pens up to Tissa’s apartment on the Upper East Side. I had known about her from reading John Canemaker’s book on Raggedy Ann, and Corny Cole mentioned her a few times in class at CalArts. So I was very excited to meet her. Well, she couldn’t have been nicer to me! She invited me in and we talked for a bit about animation, and POE, and she showed me her apartment, which was the loveliest I had ever seen. She was very easy to talk to, and I left feeling great.

    We were all working hard on POE at the time, and Tissa was doing unbelievable amounts of layouts and animation. Every month or so, a large stack of folders would arrive, filled with her drawings. It was my job to scan them and put the scenes together in Photoshop. I loved working on her scenes because I got to see how she approached things. I learned a lot. Those were good times.

    One time at a party at the studio, I talked to her about her film, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Michael had given me a DVD of it, so it was fresh on my mind. I could see that she was so happy to talk about it. The party was very loud with many different conversations going on, but she could hear everything I said. It really surprised me!

    I’m glad I got to meet her. She was always very kind to me.

    It’s great that so much of her work has been featured on this blog over the years. It’s a treasure. Her animation is truly amazing.

  33. on 22 Aug 2012 at 2:52 pm 33.Dave Bennett said …

    I was in awe of her talent, and her genuine kindness to me, as a tiny speck in the background on Raggedy Ann and Andy.

    She has left us an amazing legacy, and many hearts that will never forget her.

    You were lucky to have been so close to her, Michael. My heartfelt sympathy goes out to you.

  34. on 22 Aug 2012 at 3:10 pm 34.Eddie Fitzgerald said …

    A great loss. I’m very sorry to hear it.

  35. on 22 Aug 2012 at 3:17 pm 35.Robert said …

    Very sad news. Tissa was an inspiration and teacher to all of us. I always felt honored to simply be in her presence (let alone to actually work with her).

    About twenty years ago Tissa once solemnly told me (with a twinkle in her eye) that she was “getting ready to take the final journey across the great ocean…”. Thank God she took her time doing that.

    I know how hard this must be for you personally Michael. My condolences and love.

    p.s. I’ll never forget the day at your studio when I was just starting out and she admonished me for punching paper the wrong way! Of course she was right…and then she graciously took the time to show me the correct way. The first of many lessons from one of the true greats in animation.

  36. on 22 Aug 2012 at 4:00 pm 36.Tissa David 1921-2012 said …

    [...] Very sad news today: New York animation legend Tissa David passed away last night at age 91. Michael Sporn broke the news on his blog and gives a recount of her career better than anyone one else could. John Canemaker also wrote an appreciation of Tissa several years ago on David Nethery’s website. [...]

  37. on 22 Aug 2012 at 4:04 pm 37.Eric Goldberg said …

    I cannot begin to say what a loss this is for me. I learned so much from Tissa, and was honored to have known her. My first real professional job was cleaning up her Raggedy Anns and Andys, hoping that I wasn’t destroying their sensitivity and energy in the process. Thanks for everything, Tissa.

  38. on 22 Aug 2012 at 5:07 pm 38.Master Animator Tissa David Was 91 « Movie City News said …

    [...] Master Animator Tissa David Was 91 [...]

  39. on 22 Aug 2012 at 5:42 pm 39.Robert Schaad said …

    Sorry to hear of Tissa’s passing. It was obvious how much you loved and respected her, Michael. Her legacy will live on. What a great talent.RIP.

  40. on 22 Aug 2012 at 6:37 pm 40.Masako said …

    I am so sorry to hear this sad news. It was a true privilege to experience Tissa’s work so closely – how many people can actually brag about painting her original animation drawings?

    Michael, I thank you for giving me that rare opportunity. My thoughts are with you.

  41. on 22 Aug 2012 at 8:25 pm 41.Tom Minton said …

    Sorry to hear about your loss. Tissa David was a legend.

  42. on 22 Aug 2012 at 10:34 pm 42.Tom Sito said …

    I recall Tissa was always protective of Grim Natwick. The first time I met her was as a student at SVA in 1974, When she accompanied Grim to speak at Howard Beckerman’s class. Later as an inbetweener on Raggedy Ann, she critiqued our attempts at walk cycles. Grim’s animation of the Sock alongside Tissa’s Annies was charming.

    In 1990, I was organizing events for ASIFA/Hollywood. I was aware that Grim was turning 100 that year. At the Annie Awards, Tissa and June Foray cornered me in the parking lot. Tissa said in her way” Tamasz! You make Party for Greem!” How could I say no? The party became a great event, and 510 of the top legends of Hollywood and New York came. It was a memorable night. and Tissa and June were the primus-mobile.

    God Bless Tissa, taking her place in Animation Valhalla.

  43. on 23 Aug 2012 at 12:14 am 43.Josiah Sarr said …

    I really enjoyed the artwork she did for your upcoming film. I’m sad to hear she passed away, her work left an impression on me for simple clear visual storytelling.

  44. on 23 Aug 2012 at 1:30 am 44.Ray K. said …

    Tissa: you were the best.

    Rest in peace.

  45. on 23 Aug 2012 at 8:10 am 45.Dávid Szaniszla said …

    Kedves Tissa! Nagyon örülök, hogy ezen a sok véleményen átrághattam magam. Az a nagy szeretet, amivel átkarolnak, gyönyörű. Elhiszem, hogy hiányzol sok embernek, nekünk is hiányzol itt Magyarországon, Szegeden. Most már odafentről figyelhetsz ránk és segítsd ezt a kis országot, Magyarországot.
    Isten áldjon! Póli

  46. on 23 Aug 2012 at 11:51 am 46.Nancy Miles said …

    We are very sad at her passing. Wonderful, Talented Lady!

  47. on 23 Aug 2012 at 2:20 pm 47.mr. warburton said …

    so happy that you were there for her, mr. sporn!
    what a wonderful person to spend so much time with.
    i wrote down some of my my experiences with her over here:

    http://warburtonlabs.blogspot.com/2012/08/tissa-david-1921-2012.html

  48. on 23 Aug 2012 at 2:32 pm 48.SteveD said …

    The grace and eloquence of her work remain an inspiration, and she was always very giving of her knowledge of craft and its importance. Even at her most cutting, her critical insights provided a wealth of information and her incredible generosity in that regard cannot be understated.

  49. on 23 Aug 2012 at 6:40 pm 49.Santiago Cohen said …

    I am profoundly saddened. She was a virtuoso animator, and a beautiful person to have met. We’re all going to miss her.

  50. on 24 Aug 2012 at 12:43 pm 50.Patti Stren said …

    Our profession and our creative lives were made more remarkable and distinguished because of Tissa’s inspiration all these years. How fortunate we are to have grown as artists under her influence, both artistically and personally and spiritually.
    My husband, Richard, joins me in a deep appreciation of Tissa’s life.

  51. on 24 Aug 2012 at 1:34 pm 51.Bridget Thorne said …

    I’ve been thinking about Tissa lately, probably started with Poe but
    moved to other times. I am so glad that I had the chance to know her and to work with her.
    I’m sure you are hard hit. I’m so sorry for the hole she’ll leave for you and for the entire animation community.

  52. on 27 Aug 2012 at 12:43 pm 52.Ernest Troost said …

    So sorry to hear about Tissa, Michael. I know how close you were to her, so it must be very hard. Louise and I send you our heartfelt condolences.

    I’ll never forget how patient and kind Tissa was with me when we worked on The Soldier’s Tale. I spent a good deal of time working closely with her in the editing room and she taught me so much about how sound and picture worked together. I was always astounded to see the emotions she captured in her animation sequences–so strong and elegant, like her.

  53. on 11 Oct 2013 at 10:21 am 53.Sang Pechin said …

    I am just nonetheless learning from an individual, for producing my way to the most notable as well. My partner and i definitely enjoy reading everything that is posted on your blog site.Keep your aarticles returning. I loved the idea!

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