The animator of much-loved cartoons Roobarb andHenry's Cat has died aged 91, his family has confirmed.
Bob Godfrey wonan Oscar for his short film Great, a biography of the engineer Isambard KingdomBrunel, but remains best known for his TV work.
The Britishanimator - whose career spanned 50 years - was also responsible for Noah andNelly in... Skylark and the risque cartoon series Henry 9 to 5.
He was awardedthree Baftas and received an MBE in June 1986.
Godfrey wasborn in Australia, on 27 May 1921, but was educated in east London.
He began hisprofessional career as a graphic artist working in advertising, before joiningthe innovative Larkin Studio in the early 1950s where he made his earliestcartoons.
In themid-1950s, Godfrey joined up with Jeff Hale and Keith Learner, and later NancyHanna and Vera Linnecar, to form Biographic Films, making some of the firstcommercials for ITV.
But he soughtto work outside the American tradition, characterised by Disney - and typicallytook a more unorthodox view, producing work such as The Do It Yourself CartoonKit (1961).
Kama Sutra
Working as BobGodfrey Films, he cornered the market with his "adult animation" suchas Henry 9 to 5 and Kama Sutra Rides Again, which earned him his first Oscarnomination - after it was entered for the awards by an American who bought thecartoon from him for £150.
It was closelyfollowed by the Oscar-winning short Great, which satirised Victorian attitudesand the decline of the British Empire, won him the Academy Award and a Bafta in1976.
"I'd been reading a book about Brunel so I askedBritish Lion, who backed Kama Sutra, if I could have some money to make ahalf-hour cartoon about a Victorian engineer," he told theGuardian in 2001.
"Yes, they said, here's £20,000. They'd havegiven me money to animate a toilet if I'd asked them."
It was during this period of his life that heanimated the children's classic Roobarb, created by Grange Calveley andnarrated by Richard Briers, who died earlier this week.
The anarchic cartoon about a warring cat and dog,with its memorable theme tune and wobbly dog animation won a cult following,which continues today.
He collaborated once again with Calveley and Briers on1976's Noah and Nelly in Skylark, returning successfully to children's TV withHenry's Cat in the early 1980s.
But he was at his happiest when he was pushing theboundaries of conventional animation, working alongside avant-garde stars suchas Spike Milligan and Michael Bentine, hob-nobbing with the Beatles and, later,becoming an inspiration for a young Terry Gilliam.
Aardman Animations founder Peter Lord tweeted:"Ah! Dear old Bob Godfrey is no more. A great influence and inspiration tome and my generation of animators. Also a lovely bloke."
Godfrey continued to work on commercials and TVcommissions into his early 80s, producing his last work, Channel 4'sMillennium: The Musical, in 1999.
As a teacher of animation, he told the Guardian in2001: "I teach the basics of animation, then it's up to the individual.
"Great illustrators don't always make greatanimators. I've known people who couldn't draw at all who were great animators.You can always spot the ones with real talent. They don't listen to you."
Source: BBC
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