At the celebration of his 85th birthday (2001)

Born Juan Cuauhtemoc Melendez in Hermasillo, Mexico. Animator who started working in American cartoons at Warner Bros. in 1941, going full-time in 1945. Melendez also worked at UPA, John Sutherland Productions, Playhouse Pictures and Disney before starting his own company. Starting with A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS (1965), Melendez and "Sparky," as everyone called Charles Schultz, created a library of "Peanuts" programming, including 63 half-hour specials, five one-hour specials and four feature films as well as 372 commercials. Melendez has also animated "Garfield" and "Cathy" specials, generated from the popular comic strips. Melendez is one of the few animators left in the business to head a studio, let alone one who draws on a daily basis. Melendez also contributed animation to IT'S A MAD MAD MAD MAD WORLD (1963) and COOL WORLD (1992). Use this link to visit the Internet Movie Database for a full listing of Melendez's credits.  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Song Score) 1970: A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN (w. Rod McKuen, John Scott Trotter, Al Shean & Vince Guaraldi) 1 nomination