Tex Avery was a descendant of Judge Roy Bean and Daniel Boone, but all his grandma ever told him about it was "Don't ever mention you are kin to Roy Bean. He's a no good skunk!!" After graduating from North Dallas High School in 1927, Avery moved to Southern California in 1929 and got a job in the harbor. After showing samples of his artwork he got a job at Walter Lantz Studios in 1929 as animator. His contributions during the years at Walter Lantz Studios were minor. From 1936 to 1941 he worked as supervisor - another word for cartoon director - of some 60 titles in the Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes series at Warner.

From 1942 to 1954 Avery worked as director of cartoons at MGM. He was responsible for practically every MGM Cartoon that did not feature Tom and Jerry. In 1955 he did four cartoons, again for Walter Lantz Studios, before leaving the field for advertising, where his unique sense of humor went largely unappreciated. Among the many cartoon characters Avery created are Daffy Duck, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel and Chilly Willy. Tex Avery is also credited with creating the personality of Bugs Bunny. He was the one who coined the phrase "What's up, doc?"

He liked to interrupt the action of his films, to give a comment that always ended with "...isn't it?" ie. having a cowboy chase scene suddenly replaced with the sentence, "Exciting, isn't it?"

Trivia

Tex was blind in his left eye, as a result of an accident during some horseplay at Walter Lantz Studios. Because of this, he lost his depth perception.

Acording to biographer Joe Adamson, when Tex was working on the cartoon 'A Wild Hare', (wich is the first official Bugs Bunny cartoon) they were looking for something for the rabbit to say when Elmer Fudd pointed his gun to the rabbit's head, Tex off of the top of his head said how about "What's up doc?" Tex used 'doc' on many of his other cartoons before this, but nobody seemed to notice. 'Doc' was an expression used at North Dallas High School used by many students, including Tex.

Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:

One of the primary innovators in American cartoon history, he helped forge the wacky "house style" that came to be associated with Warner Bros. A youthful cartoonist, he drifted to California and the animation business, and having worked for Walter Lantz for several years, passed himself off as an experienced director when Warners' producer Leon Schlesinger was hiring. In 1935 he was given his own unit, and with such other "young turks" as Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett, began accelerating the pace and sharpening the gags in their cartoons (including a great many jokes referring to the cartoons themselves!). Avery was instrumental in developing the Porky Pig and Daffy Duck characters, but is credited more strongly for solidifying Bugs Bunny, and defining his relationship to Elmer Fudd, in his 1940 cartoon A Wild Hare (He also provided the hilariously hearty laugh voiced by various characters in his films.)

In 1941 Avery left Warners, helped devise the Speaking of Animals series, and then found a new home at MGM. Here his talent reached full flower, and his cartoons became more manic than ever. Among his masterpieces: Red Hot Riding Hood (1943, with a libidinous wolf and sexybabe Riding Hood who appeared in a handful of other shorts), Bad Luck Blackie (1949), and perhaps best of all, King Size Canary (1947), in which a product called Jumbo-Gro gives new dimension (literally) to the archetypal cartoon chase between a cat and a bird.

Avery also introduced the understated character of Droopy, and the overstated, anarchic (and short-lived) Screwball Squirrel. He left MGM in the mid-1950s, and worked for a short time for Walter Lantz, where he directed the penguin character Chilly Willy (in I'm Cold and The Legend of Rockabye Point Thereafter he directed TV commercials, including a long-running series for Raid, and even directed Bugs Bunny in a TV spot for Kool-Aid. Toward the end of his life he joined his MGM colleagues Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera at their studio to supervise a series of TV cartoons. They were thrilled to have him, because they knew what everyone else in the animation business knew: Tex Avery was one of a kind.

Director
Warner Bros.

1935
Towne Hall Follies (uncredited)
Quail Hunt (uncredited)

(as Fred Avery)
1936
Gold Diggers of '49
The Blow Out
Plane Dippy
I'd Love to Take Orders from You
Page Miss Glory
I Love to Singa
The Village Smithy
Porky the Rain-Maker
Milk and Money
Don't Look Now

1937
Porky the Wrestler
Picador Porky
I Only Have Eyes for You
Porky's Duck Hunt
Uncle Tom's Bungalow
Ain't We Got Fun
Porky's Garden
I Wanna Be a Sailor
Egghead Rides Again
A Sunbonnet Blue
Little Red Walking Hood

1938
Daffy Duck and Egghead
The Sneezing Weasel
The Penguin Parade
The Isle of Pingo Pongo
A Feud There Was
Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas
Daffy Duck in Hollywood
Cinderella Meets Fella
The Mice Will Play

1939
Fresh Fish
Screwball Football
Hamateur Night
A Day at the Zoo
Thugs with Dirty Mugs
Believe It or Else
Dangerous Dan McFoo
Detouring America
Land of the Midnight Fun

1940
The Early Worm Gets the Bird
Cross Country Detours
The Bear's Tale
A Gander at Mother Goose
Circus Today
A Wild Hare
Ceiling Hero
Wacky Wildlife
Of Fox and Hounds
Holiday Highlights

1941
The Haunted Mouse
The Crackpot Quail
Tortoise Beats Hare
Porky's Preview
Hollywood Steps Out
The Heckling Hare
Aviation Vacation
Speaking of Animals Down on the Farm
Speaking of Animals in a Pet Shop
All This and Rabbit Stew (uncredited)
The Bug Parade (uncredited)
Speaking of Animals in the Zoo
The Cagey Canary (uncredited)

1942
Aloha Hooey (uncredited)
Crazy Cruise (uncredited)

M.G.M.
1942
Blitz Wolf
The Early Bird Dood It!

1943
Dumb-Hounded
Red Hot Riding Hood
Who Killed Who?
One Ham's Family
What's Buzzin' Buzzard?

1944
Screwball Squirrel
Batty Baseball
Happy-Go-Nutty
Big Heel-Watha

1945
The Screwy Truant
Jerky Turkey
The Shooting of Dan McGoo
Swing Shift Cinderella
Wild and Woolfy

1946
Lonesome Lenny
The Hick Chick
Northwest Hounded Police
Henpecked Hoboes

1947
Hound Hunters
Red Hot Rangers
Uncle Tom's Cabaña
Slap Happy Lion
King-Size Canary

1948
What Price Fleadom
Little 'Tinker
Half-Pint Pygmy
Lucky Ducky
The Cat That Hated People

1949
Bad Luck Blackie
Señor Droopy
Doggone Tired
Wags to Riches
Little Rural Riding Hood
The House of Tomorrow
Out-Foxed
The Counterfeit Cat

1950
Ventriloquist Cat
The Cuckoo Clock
Garden Gopher
The Chump Champ
The Peachy Cobbler

1951
Cock-a-Doodle Dog
Daredevil Droopy
Droopy's Good Deed
Symphony in Slang
Car of Tomorrow
Droopy's Double Trouble

1952
Magical Maestro
One Cab's Family
Rock-a-Bye Bear

1953
Little Johnny Jet
T.V. of Tomorrow
Three Little Pups, The

1954
Drag-A-Long Droopy
Billy Boy
Homesteader Droopy
Farm of Tomorrow
Flea Circus, The
Dixieland Droopy

Walter Lantz Studio
1954
I'm Cold

1955
Sh-h-h-h-h
The Legend of Rockabye Point
Crazy Mixed Up Pup

1957
" The Woody Woodpecker Show" TV Series (theatrical cartoon segments)
Cat's Meow

M.G.M. Cinemascope
Cellbound (1955)
Deputy Droopy (1955)
First Bad Man, The (1955)
Field and Scream (1955)
Millionaire Droopy (1956)

"Tom and Jerry" (1965) TV Series
Woody Woodpecker and His Friends (1982) (V) (original material)
"Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends" (1990) TV Series (original material)
"That's Warner Bros.!" (1995) TV Series (original material)
"Bugs n' Daffy Show, The" (1996) TV Series (original material)


Actor
Sneezing Weasel, The (1938) (voice) .... Weasel
Penguin Parade, The (1938) (voice) .... Walrus
Count Me Out (1938) (voice) .... Referee
Hamateur Night (1939) (voice) .... Hippo
Bear's Tale, The (1940) (voice) .... Papa Bear
Ghost Wanted (1940) (voice) .... Fat ghost
Of Fox and Hounds (1940) (voice) .... Willoughby
Crackpot Quail, The (1941) (uncredited) (voice)
Heckling Hare, The (1941) (voice) .... Willoughby
Hold the Lion, Please (1942) (voice) .... Hippo
Who Killed Who? (1943) (uncredited) (voice) .... Santa Claus
Henpecked Hoboes (1946) (voice) .... Junior
Hound Hunters (1947) (voice) .... Junior
Red Hot Rangers (1947) (voice) .... Junior
What Price Fleadom (1948) (voice) .... Homer's Dog
Half-Pint Pygmy (1948) (voice) .... Junior
Bad Luck Blackie (1949) (voice) .... Large Dog
Deputy Droopy (1955) (uncredited) (voice) .... Short Robber
"Woody Woodpecker Show, The" (1957) TV Series
Bugs Bunny Superstar (1975) .... Himself


Miscellaneous Crew
Bandmaster, The (1931) (animator) (as Fred Avery)
Going to Blazes (1933) (animator)
Ham and Eggs (1933) (animator)
Chris Columbus, Jr. (1934) (animator)
Elmer the Great Dane (1935) (animator)
Towne Hall Follies (1935) (animator)
Quail Hunt (1935) (animator)
"Kwicky Koala Show, The" (1981) TV Series (story editor)


Writer
Crazy Mixed Up Pup (1955)
Sh-h-h-h-h (1955)
"Woody Woodpecker Show, The" (1957) TV Series
"Tom and Jerry" (1965) TV Series
"Kwicky Koala Show, The" (1981) TV Series (creator)


Art Department
Room and Wrath (1956) (storyboard artist)
Hold That Rock (1956) (storyboard artist)