Al Eugster

Alfred Eugster (February 11, 1909 – January 1, 1997) was an American animator, writer, and film director. He worked for a number of American animation studios, including Fleischer Studios, the Ub Iwerks studio, Walt Disney Productions, and Famous Studios.

Personal

His parents were musician Julius Eugster and Hedwig Fiegel, both were from German descent. Between 1915 and 1919, his dad passed away when he was just a child. At the age of 16, he got paid $10 dollars a week for doing jobs and the American Radiator Company. Al Eugster was married to his wife Hazel, also known as Chick, for 61 years. The two had no children, and Hazel died in 1995.

Career

Eugster began his career in animation in April 1925 where he worked at the Pat Sullivan studio. He helped create the series Felix the Cat and would blacken in the drawing of Felix. During his time working for the Pat Sullivan studio, he worked under Otto Messmer. Eugster attended Cooper Union at nighttime to study art while also working. Al Eugster then joined Fleischer Studios in April 1929. Eugster would return to Fleischer in 1940. In 1932, Eugster went to work for Mintz. He worked with Preston Blair on many films, most notably, Krazy Kat cartoons. Just a year later, he went on to work for Ub lwerks where he co-animated several ComiColor shorts with Shamus Culhane. Eugster worked for Ub Iwerks until 1935, when he joined Walt Disney Animation Studios. His specialty while at Disney studio was the animation of Donald Duck as well as the works of Snow White. Eugster re-joined Fleischer in 1940 and stayed with them until 1943. He later joined the US Army. After his release from the Army, he joined Famous in 1945. Here he was the head animator and worked on a number of Screen Songs and Popeye cartoons until 1957. From 1957-1964, Eugster freelanced throughout New York working for various commercial studios. In 1964, he joined Paramount where he worked for Shamus Culhane and Ralph Bakski until the studio closed in 1967. The following year, he joined Kim and Gifford, where he began his longest stay at a single studio. In September 1987, Eugster retired from Kim and Gifford, ending his 62-year career.

External links

• "Al Eugster - Cartoon Animator." Contains a partial list of scenes animated by Eugster and photos from his personal files.
• Al Eugster entry from "Popeye Cartoons." Contains notes from Eugster's ledger and the only known clip of his Popeye animation.
• Al Eugster filmography from the British Film Institute
• Al Eugster at IMDb