Gerald Potterton

Gerald Potterton (8 March 1931 – 23 August 2022) was a Canadian director, animator, producer and writer. He is best known for directing the cult classic Heavy Metal and for his animation work on Yellow Submarine. Potterton won one Peabody Award and was nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: as director on the National Film Board of Canada animated shorts My Financial Career and Christmas Cracker, and as producer for The Selfish Giant. Early life Potterton was born and raised in south London's Tooting Bec neighbourhood, the eldest of three children born into an entertainment-industry family—his father was a professional musician and his uncle was the manager of the London Palladium. By age five, he was attending the Saturday morning pictures, where he first became interested in film; by 14, he was getting regular work as a child actor in live-action films being shot at Ealing Studios, Elstree Studios and Pinewood Studios. He won a place to study art at the Hammersmith Academy; upon graduation, in 1949, he was drafted to fight in the Korean War. He spent two years in the Royal Air Force; after his discharge, a neighbour suggested that he apply at Halas and Batchelor, the studio which was doing the animation work for the film Animal Farm, which would be Britain's first animated feature. By this time, Potterton had an excellent art portfolio, including a comic book; he was hired and spent the next two years there as an assistant animator. During this time, Potterton also founded the Grasshopper Group, a cooperative with the mission to help London's animators produce their projects. He met Norman McLaren, the Scottish animator who was already on his way to becoming the star filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Potterton also wanted to leave London, which had become intolerably dirty—the 1952 Great Smog of London, which killed at least 4,000 people, had a deep impact on him. That, and McLaren's description of Canada and working at the NFB, led him to move to Ottawa in 1954. He was hired by the NFB; his first project was the 1955 animated training film Huff and Puff.