Art Clokey

Arthur Clokey (born Arthur Charles Farrington; October 12, 1921 – January 8, 2010) was an American animator, director, producer, screenwriter and voice actor, he was pioneer in the popularization of stop-motion clay animation, best known as the creator of the character Gumby and the original voice of Gumby's sidekick, Pokey. Clokey's career began in 1953 with a film experiment called Gumbasia, which was influenced by his professor, Slavko Vorkapich, at the University of Southern California. Clokey and his wife Ruth subsequently came up with the clay character Gumby and his horse Pokey, who first appeared in the Howdy Doody Show and later got their own series The Adventures of Gumby, from which they became a familiar presence on American television. The characters enjoyed a renewal of interest in the 1980s when American actor and comedian Eddie Murphy parodied Gumby in a skit on Saturday Night Live. Clokey's second-most famous production is the duo of Davey and Goliath, funded by the Lutheran Church in America (now the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). Clokey founded the company Premavision (which has manufacturing subsidiary, Prema Toy Company) around his Gumby and Pokey franchise. Early life Arthur Charles Farrington was born in Detroit on October 12, 1921. After his parents' divorce when he was about 8, he lived with his father; when Arthur was 9, his father was killed in an automobile accident. Rejoining his mother in California, the boy was banished by her new husband and placed in a children’s home. At about 11, young Arthur was adopted by Joseph Waddell Clokey, a well-known composer of sacred and secular music.