Paul J. Smith

By 1955, Smith had taken over as primary director of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon shorts. With Smith in the director's chair, the Woody Woodpecker series maintained its trademark frenetic energy, while the animation itself was simplified, due to budget constraints. By the late 1960s, Smith became the sole director of the Lantz studio's output: the cartoon series Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, and The Beary Family. Smith stayed with Lantz until the studio was closed in 1972. Smith died in Van Nuys, California on November 17, 1980. He was the brother of animators Frank Smith and Hank Smith and the uncle of actor and film director Charles Martin Smith. [biography (excerpted) from Wikipedia]