Filmmaker Gerald Potterton, an important figure in NFB animation, has died at the age of 91.
Posted at 3:52 p.m.
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) said he died Tuesday evening at Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins Hospital in Cowansville. The organization said it learned with deep sadness of the death of an “outstanding builder” and artist.
Originally from London, he immigrated to Canada in 1954 to work alongside pioneers of animation at the NFB. Two of his short films, My financial career (1962) and whim of Christmasa 1963 film he co-directed with Norman McLaren, Jeff Hale and Grant Munro, was nominated for an Oscar.
Later in his career, he founded Potterton Productions in Canada, obtaining within this independent company a third Oscar nomination for the animated short film adapted from the tale by Oscar Wilde. The Selfish Giant (1972).
The NFB pointed out that Gerald Potterton has also made his mark in live-action comedy with the race (1963) and the award-winning wordless film The Railrodder (1965), which starred the great Buster Keaton in one of his last film roles.
Back in the UK, he worked on the Beatles animated feature Yellow Submarine (1968). He then collaborated with Harold Pinter on an NBC special, Pinterest Peoplethe result of a long collaboration with actor Donald Pleasence.
In 1981, he directed for Columbia Pictures the cult film Heavy Metalsupported by a soundtrack made of hard rock and new wave.
In 2020, he wrote and illustrated a children’s story about Joseph-Armand Bombardier, The Snowmanpublished by Éditions Québec Amérique.
“Gerald came to Canada and to the NFB to be part of a new wave of irreverent and innovative storytellers, and each of his projects was brimming with intelligence and creativity. He was also a builder who, along with Potterton Productions, helped lay the foundations of the current independent Canadian animation industry,” said Claude Joli-Coeur, government film commissioner and president of the NFB.