Ben Hardaway

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Ben "Bugs" Hardaway (1897 - 1957) was a storyboard artist, gagman, and film director for several American animation studios during the The Golden Age of Hollywood animation.

While at Warner Brothers during the late 1930s, Hardaway served as a storyman, and co-directed several films with Cal Dalton during Friz Freleng's three-year exodus to MGM. In 1938, Hardaway co-directed the first film to feature the prototype for a screwball rabbit character. This character would adopt Hardaway's nickname and be christened Bugs Bunny in 1940.

In 1940, Hardaway joined the staff of the Walter Lantz Studio, where he created the studio's most famous character, Woody Woodpecker. Hardaway wrote or co-wrote most of the stories for the 1940 - 1949 Woody Woodpecker shorts, and also voiced the character during this period as well (Mel Blanc voiced Woody for the woodpecker's first three cartoon appearances: Knock Knock, Woody Woodpecker, and The Screwball).

Hardaway was also the writer for the Pow Wow the Indian Boy cartoon series that aired as part of the Captain Kangaroo show.

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