David Weidman, RIP

One more UPA artist steps into history.

David Weidman, the UPA animation artist whose midcentury silkscreen prints found a new appreciation in recent years, died Wednesday. He was 93 and had lived in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles in a house he built himself since the 1950s.

Weidman worked on the backgrounds and other paintings for UPA cartoons such as “The Boing Boing Show,” “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” and “The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo” that helped form the distinctive modern style for which the studio was known. He also worked on Jay Ward’s “Fractured Fairy Tales,” “Crusader Rabbit” and “Popeye” TV shorts. ...

David Weidman's cartoon career stretches back to the second incarnation of Crusader Rabbit in 1957, and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol in the early sixties. Today, of course, he's best known for his artistic work outside of animation.