Born: Philip Roman
Birthday: December 21, 1930
Location: Fresno, CA, U.S.
Nationality: American
Alma mater: Hollywood Art Center School
Occupation: Animator, Director, Producer
Years active: 1955–2016

Philip Roman was born in Fresno, California on December 21, 1930. He decided to become an animator after watching Bambi in 1942 and took up drawing. During his high school years at San Joaquin Memorial High School, he was an illustrator for the school newspaper, worked as an usher at a theater showing cartoons, and took correspondence courses from the Famous Artist School under Charles M. Schulz.

Phil boarded a bus and moved to Hollywood, California after graduating from high school. Arriving with only $60 in his pocket, he was admitted to the Hollywood Art Center School under a work/study scholarship. He provided two hours of manual labor to the school after classes every day to pay off his tuition each semester.

His studies were interrupted by the Korean War. Roman enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, serving in France as a radio mechanic for three years. He mustered out after war’s end and returned stateside to resume his training at the Art Center, using the G.I. Bill to pay for tuition.

In 1955, he graduated from Hollywood Art Center School, and his childhood dream was fulfilled when he was hired at Disney Studios. His first assignment was as an assistant animator on Sleeping Beauty, for 99 cents per hour.

Impatient to become a fully-fledged animator, Phil left Disney in 1957 to animate television commercials for Imagination, Inc. in San Francisco where he learned every aspect of the animation production business over the course of two years. He directed several popular animated commercials like Star-Kist Tuna’s “Sorry Charlie” spot and an ad with the champagne sipping bird saying Western Airlines is “The only way to fly!”

Roman returned to Hollywood in 1959 and began working for a variety of studios like John Sutherland Productions, Total Television, and Sam Nicholson Productions, before landing at Chuck Jones’s independent Sib Tower 12 Productions making films for MGM in 1963. Beginning as an assistant animator under Ben Washam, Phil worked on the 1965 MGM Oscar-winning The Dot And The Line. Jones quickly promoted Roman to a lead animator for How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, where he animated the Grinch and Cindy Lou Who. He also animated Tom and Jerry shorts, the Horton Hears a Who TV special, and The Phantom Tollbooth feature film.

He lent his talents to UPA for some Mr. Magoo and Pink Panther shorts, as well as DePatie-Freleng’s Tijuana Toads series as he started with Bill Melendez in the 1970s. At Bill Melendez Productions, Roman co-directed sixteen animated Peanuts/Charlie Brown specials until 1983; fifteen of which earned Emmy nominations and three going on to win Emmy awards. During that same period, Roman also worked as an animator for Ralph Bakshi’s 1978 Lord of the Rings.

Phil founded his own animation studio Film Roman, Inc. in 1984, landing a contract to produce and direct animated specials based on Jim Davis’ comic-strip character, Garfield. Of the twelve Garfield specials Roman produced from 1982 to 1991, three would earn Emmys. In 1987, his studio began producing the Saturday morning Garfield & Friends television series as well.

The ‘90s were a period of rapid growth. Roman co-founded ASK/Roman Animation Studios in 1990; one of Russia’s first full-service animation facilities after the communist Soviet Union’s collapse. In 1992, he not only produced and directed his studio’s first feature, Tom & Jerry: The Movie, but he also took over production of Matt Groening’s The Simpsons in their fourth season. He produced other series like The Mask, Bobby’s World, The Critic, and King of the Hill. Film Roman held exclusive animation rights to the 1996 Olympic Games mascot, Izzy, and produced a prime time special for the character.

Having expanded from 12 freelancers in 1984 to nearly 400 employees in the late 1990s, Film Roman went public to fund even bigger projects. When a failed deal with the UPN Network cost Film Roman two million dollars in 1999, investors demoted Phil from CEO to creative director and expected him to transition into the computer animation that was gaining popularity. He instead, resigned from Film Roman while remaining a major shareholder and started a new animation production company, Phil Roman Entertainment, with a commitment to maintaining traditional cell animation.

Roman’s new company produced an animated special Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer in 2000 and he rejoined Film Roman’s board of directors in 2001. His two companies combined in 2002 to produce both computer-generated and traditional cell animation, and following Film Roman’s purchase by Waterman Entertainment in 2016, Roman was named a chairman emeritus.

Phil Roman received the International Animated Film Society’s Winsor McCay Award for his lifetime contribution to animation In 2015, and was awarded the Inkpot Award the following year.