Hal Sutherland



Hal Sutherland was an American animator and painter. He was born July 1, 1929 in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1929 and began his career as a Disney animator in 1954 working on animated features, such as "Sleeping Beauty," "Lady and the Tramp," "Peter Pan" and the last theatrical short for Donald Duck. In 1963, he became founders with Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott of Filmation Studio for turning out animated television series. His directorial assignments included the first sixteen episodes of "Star Trek: The Animated Series" in 1973 and "The New Adventures of Flash Gordon" in 1979. He also directed some of Filmation's memorable superhero cartoons, including "The Adventures of Batman," "The Batman/Superman Hour," "Aquaman" and "The Superman/Aqua-Man Hour." His other directing project included episodes of "Fat Albert," "Sabrina The Teenage Witch," "Gilligan's Planet" and "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe."

In 1974, Sutherland semi-retired and moved to Bothell, Washington to work on his painting, but he also returned to work on special projects, like "Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night" and the Snow White sequel, "Happily Ever After," which was finished in 1988 and released in 1993.

Sutherland passed away at the age of 84 on January 16, 2014 of complications related to a gall bladder issue.

Episode(s)

 * Gilligan's Planet