In 1941, Maltese was hired by Leon Schlesinger Productions, which three years later became Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. (Maltese had actually appeared on camera in the 1940 Porky Pig cartoon You Ought to Be in Pictures as a live-action guard at the Warner Bros. entrance gate, who winds up chasing the animated Porky around the Warners lot). The first cartoon he wrote for Warners was The Haunted Mouse (1941) by Tex Avery. He first worked for Freleng until 1948, but after that he worked mostly for Chuck Jones, contributing stories to other directors at times, including Robert McKimson. He and Jones collaborated on classic cartoons like the Academy Award-winning For Scent-imental Reasons and the animated public health documentary, So Much for So Little which won that same year for "Best Documentary Short Subject." Maltese was also the voice of...read more