Joseph Benson Ben aka Bugs Hardaway May 21 1895 February 5 1957 was an American storyboard artist animator voice actor gagman writer and director for several American animation studios during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation While at the Leon Schlesinger Warner Bros studio during the late 1930s Hardaway in 1938 codirected Porkys Hare Hunt the first film to feature a rabbit When this unnamed embryonic rabbit was given a new model sheet for a later short since according to Chuck Jones Hardaway didnt draw it very well designer Charlie Thorson inadvertently offered a permanent name by titling the model sheet Bugs Bunny since it was meant for Hardaways unit By the time the rabbit was redesigned and refined for the film A Wild Hare the name was already being used in relation to the character in studio publicity materials In 1940 Hardaway joined the staff of Walter Lantz Productions where he helped Walter Lantz in creating the studios most famous character Woody Woodpecker Hardaway wrote or cowrote most of the stories for the 19401950 Woody Woodpecker shorts as well as supplying Woodys voice between 1944 and 1949 biography excerpted from Wikipedia
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