Max Fleischer

Max Fleischer (July 18, 1883 - September 11, 1972 at 82 years of age) was an American Inventor, Animator, Film Director, and Producer. Fleischer headed Fleischer Studios and created such characters as Betty Boop, Koko the Clown, and Pop-Eye. He also developed the Rotoscoping Animation technique.

Biography
Max Fliescher was born in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on July 18, 1883. When he was four his family imigrated into the United States where he attended public school in the state of New York.

In his teens he worked for a local newspaper, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, as an errand boy, and latter a Cartoonist. He would marry his childhood sweetheart, Ethel 'Essie' Gold in 1905.

Fleischer invented Rotoscoping, and began work on the Out of the Inkwell series for Bray Productions before moving on to operate his own Studio, Fleischer Studios. Max would create a number of sucessful animated series before a decline that resulted in the closure of Fleischer Studios.

In latter life he became friends with former rival, Walt Disney, and retired to live in the Motion Picture Country House with his wife Ethel. He parished of heart failure on September 11, 1972.

Innovations

 * Rotoscoping (patented in 1917)