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April 30, 1946: Filmmaker Bill Plympton Born in Portland

April 30, 2011 by Dave Leave a Comment

Guns On The ClackamasAnimator Bill Plympton was born in Portland, Oregon on April 30, 1946. He graduated from Oregon City High School and attended Portland State University, where film became his obsession. At PSU he edited the yearbook and joined the film society – it was for this film society that he first attempted animation, making a yearbook promo that was accidentally shot upside-down, rendering it totally useless.

He moved to New York City in the late 1960s where he lived and worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for 15 years, and began animating short films. The short Your Face garnered Bill a 1988 Oscar nomination for best animated short, and his animation and film career took off. MTV and advertisers featured his animated shorts, and The Tune, his first feature length film, was critically well received.

More recent work includes the live action Guns on the Clackamas, a behind-the-scenes look at an imaginary disastrous Western, much of which was shot in Oregon, and Walt Curtis, Peckerneck Poet, wherein Portland poet Walt Curtis is followed around town as he reads poems.

Idiots and Angels, an animated film, is his most recently released feature.

Filed Under: Film, History, Portland, This Day in History

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