Otto Messmer

Animator, born in New Jersey, USA. He contributed joke cartoons to Life magazine (1914), and entered animation in 1916, scripting and animating many films, including the Charlie Chaplin cartoons (1917). In 1920 he created Feline Follies, making Felix the Cat the first cartoon film star to win international fame; one of the many spin-offs was a comic strip for newspaper syndication (1923) which he drew in his spare time. Felix failed to make the transition to sound, but Messmer continued the strip until 1954.

Otto Messmer (August 16, 1892 - October 28, 1983) was an American animator, best known for his work on the Felix the Cat cartoons and comic strip produced by the Pat Sullivan studio.

The extent of Messmer's role in the creation and popularity of Felix is a matter of ongoing dispute, particularly as he only laid his claim to the character after the death of Sullivan, who until that time had received the credit.

Messmer was born in West Hoboken, New Jersey (now Union City, New Jersey).

Messmer's first love, however, was cartooning.

He signed a deal with Jack Cohn of Universal Studios in 1915 to produce a test film of a character Messmer created called "Motor Mat". It was never released, but drew the interest of animator Pat Sullivan, though Messmer instead decided to go to work with Henry "Hy" Mayer, a well-known cartoonist. Messmer would subsequently work for Sullivan, who handled the business side of the work, with Messmer handling creative responsibilities. When Sullivan served a nine-month prison sentence in 1917, Messmer briefly returned to work with Mayer, until Messmer was drafted into World War I.

When Messmer returned to the United States in 1919, he returned to Sullivan's studio, which was hired by director Earl Hurd of Paramount Screen Magazine for a cartoon short that would accompany a feature film. Sullivan gave the project to Messmer, whose end result, Feline Follies, starred Felix, a black cat that he created, which brought good luck to people in trouble. Sullivan, however, took the credit for Felix, though Messmer directed and was the lead animator on all of the episodes he appeared in, and Sullivan's name was the only onscreen credit that appeared in them.

Felix the Cat starred in over 150 cartoons until 1931, when animation studios began converting to sound films.

He also produced more Felix comic books in the 1940s and 1950s for companies such as Dell Comics, Toby Press, and Harvey Comics, as well as doing animation for the Paramount studios (Several Popeye cartoons carry his credit). By the 1960s, Felix had been reinvented for television, and Messmer's longtime assistant Joe Oriolo (the creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost) made sure that Messmer was finally given credit as the true creator of Felix the Cat.

Messmer died on October 28, 1983, aged 91.