Biography

Raymond "Ray" Patterson was an American animator. and director of animated films. He was born in Hollywood, California.

Patterson started his animation career in 1929, as an inker for the Mintz studio, the animation studio created by producer Charles Mintz (1889-1939). He remained there when the studio was renamed to "Screen Gems", and remained there for the entire 1930s decade.

In 1940, Patterson was hired as animator for the Walt Disney Animation Studio, where he remained until 1943. He served as an animator for the feature films "Fantasia" (1940) and "Dumbo" (1941). He also worked in the studio's short film department. He at first worked mostly in the Pluto film series, but then worked on the even more popular Donald Duck series.

In 1943, Patterson was hired as an animator by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, where he would continue working until 1954. He mostly served as an animator for the production unit co-headed by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna, focusing on the then-popular Tom and Jerry film series. However, he also worked at times with Tex Avery's production unit, and even served under Dick Lundy (Avery's substitute director ).

In 1954, Patterson served as one of the founders of Grantray-Lawrence Animation, an animation studio mostly focusing on television commercials. In the 1960s, Grantray-Lawrence produced the animated television series"The Marvel Super Heroes" (1966) and "Spider-Man" (1967-1970), with Patterson still one of their animators. He left the studio in 1967, when it faced bankruptcy.

In 1967, Patterson was hired by Hanna-Barbera, the animation studio created by his former MGM bosses. He was eventually promoted to a supervising director for many of the studio's animated series and films from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Patterson held the position of Vice President of the studio for a number of years. He retired in 1993, at the age of 82.

In 1999, Patterson received a Winsor McCay Award for contributions to animation. He died in 2001, reportedly of natural causes. He died shortly before his 90th birthday.
- IMDb mini biography by: Dimos I

Brother of animator Don Patterson.