About bill

Bill Plympton stands in front of a whiteboard with his sketches of "Guard Dog" and "Slide", characters from his films.

Born in Portland, Oregon to Don and Wilda Plympton, he grew up in a large family of three girls and three boys. For the six children it was often far too wet to play outside. Plympton credits Oregon’s rainy climate for nurturing his drawing skills and imagination. When he discovered the Walt Disney films, he made his mind up at the age of 5 to become an Animator. In 1964 he graduated from Oregon City High School where he participated in the art club. He went on to Portland State University, where he published his early cartoons in the college paper “The Vanguard”, edited the yearbook, and was a member of the film society, creating posters for them. Here, he picked up his obsession for film and first attempted animation, making a yearbook promo that was accidentally shot upside-down, rendering it totally useless… On top of this, after graduating with a degree in Graphic Design, he found no schools that taught Animation. It seemed that after Walt Disney passed in 1966, The Disney Studios were suffering financially, amongst other titans in the industry at the time - Fleischer Brothers, UPA, and Warner Bros.

To avoid the Vietnam War, Plympton served in the National Guard from 1967 to 1972. In 1968, he moved to New York City and began a year of study at the School of Visual Arts. Making the Big Apple his home, Plympton served 15 years as an Illustrator and Cartoonist. Between toting his portfolio and catching cheap matinees, he designed the magazines: Cineaste, Filmmakers Newsletter, and Film Society Review. His illustrations have graced the pages of The New York Times, Vogue, House Beautiful, The Village Voice, Screw, and Vanity Fair. His cartoons appeared in such magazines as Viva, Playboy, Penthouse, Rolling Stone, National Lampoon, and Glamour. In 1975, in The Soho Weekly News, he began “Plympton,” a political cartoon strip. By 1981, it was syndicated in over twenty papers by Universal Press Syndicate.

All his life, Bill Plympton has been fascinated by animation. When he was fourteen, he sent Disney some of his cartoons and offered up his services as animator. They wrote back and told him that while his drawings showed promise, he was too young. It wasn’t until 1983 that he was approached to animate a film. The Android Sister Valeria Wasilewski asked Plympton to direct and animate a film she was producing of Jules Feiffer’s song, BOOMTOWN - But there were two problems - 1. Bill didn’t know how to animate & 2. They didn’t have the money to hire him. Connie D’Antuono, another of the film’s producers, became his Animation School, “sort of held my hand through the whole process,” Plympton says. “It was a great way to learn to make a film.” Since he wasn’t able to afford film school, he drew the entire film by himself for free in exchange for learning the techniques of professionals, and it was a hit! It played in numerous theaters across the US with a British feature called “Ploughman’s Lunch”. This gave him the confidence to make his own film.

Immediately following the completion of BOOMTOWN he began his own animated film, DRAWING LESSON #2 - Production of the live action scenes was slow due to inclement weather, so Plympton decided to start on another film. At the time, he was doodling with the human face, which led to his decision to make a whacky animated short about facial distortion. For this one, he contacted Maureen McElheron, an old friend with whom he had performed in a Country Western Band (he played pedal steel guitar), and she agreed to score YOUR FACE. Due to budgetary considerations, she also sang. Her voice, eerily decelerated to sound more masculine, combined with a fantastically contorting visage helped garner the film a 1988 Oscar nomination for best animated short.

“Suddenly people began returning my phone calls,” remembers Plympton. He became very hot in the commercial business doing spots for such clients as Trivial Pursuit, Nutrasweet, Taco Bell, AT&T, Nike, Geico, United Airlines and Mercedes-Benz. His work also started appearing more frequently on MTV, including a music video snippet for Madonna in the WHO’S THAT GIRL music video in 1987, and in the increasingly popular touring animation festivals. After a string of highly successful short films in 1988-1992 - ONE OF THOSE DAYS, HOW TO KISS, 25 WAYS TO QUIT SMOKING, and PLYMPTOONS, he began thinking about making a feature film. His shorts were winning prizes like crazy and he wanted a new challenge – and, as he puts it, “I’d wanted to make a full-length movie ever since I was a kid.”

What came to be called THE TUNE was financed entirely by the Animator himself - a USA version of “The Yellow Submarine”. Sections of the feature were released as short films to help generate funds for production. These include THE WISEMAN and PUSH COMES TO SHOVE the latter of which won the 1991 Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival. With money from his short film prizes and commercial work, he was able to complete THE TUNE in 1992 and realize a childhood dream. The completed film also made the rounds of the film festivals, garnering the prestigious Houston WorldFest Gold Jury Special Award as well as a Spirit Award nomination for Best Film Score and was distributed nationally by October Films. It was remastered and rereleased on Blu-Ray by Deaf Crocodile in 2025.

After personally drafting and coloring 30,000 drawings for THE TUNE, Plympton financed his first live-action feature himself. J. LYLE is a wacky, surreal Comedy about a sleazy lawyer who meets a magical talking dog that changes his life. “Making THE TUNE, I had a lot of ideas I realized wouldn’t work with animation, but would be lots of fun with real people! I took those ideas and made J. LYLE. Besides, my hand needed a rest after drawing.” It ran a successful festival circuit, was released in theaters around the country.

Plympton’s second live-action feature, GUNS ON THE CLACKAMAS, a behind-the-scenes look at an imaginary disastrous Western, was shot in Oregon and New York. Plympton says the idea came from the 1937 movie “Saratoga”, in which star Jean Harlow died during the filming and a stand-in was used to finish. “It was supposed to be a drama,” says Plympton, “but it ended up being funny. Every time Harlow was in a scene, a box or something blocked the view.” As with J. LYLE, GUNS ON THE CLACKAMAS got a limited theatrical release.

In 1996, Bill Plympton followed “Mala Noche” writer Walt Curtis around his Portland hometown to record him reading his poetry. This outrageous performance film hit the festival circuit in 1997 to stunned audiences. It is entitled WALT CURTIS, PECKERNECK POET.

In 1998, Bill returned to animation with I MARRIED A STRANGE PERSON. It’s a heartwarming story of a newlywed couple on their wedding night influenced by Japanese Porno Animation (Hentai). Grant, the husband, starts experiencing strange, supernatural powers and Kerry, his wife, can’t cope. Whenever Grant thinks of something, it becomes reality, yet he doesn’t know where these magical powers come from. Once again Bill Plympton single-handedly drew and financed an animated feature extravaganza – only this time for adults and the politically incorrect. It was released by Lions Gate Films to good box office numbers. A year later, he was approached by Publishing Super-Star Judith Regan to illustrate MONICA’S UNTOLD STORY: AN AMORALITY TALE in 1999 about Monica Lewinsky’s infamous affair with President Bill Clinton.

Before Bill’s next animated feature premiered at Sundance Film Festival, MUTANT ALIENS, the story of a stranded astronaut returning to Earth after 20 years in space, which was completed in 2001 - He released 12 TINY CHRISTMAS TALES for Cartoon Network that same year. It won the Grand Prix in Annecy 2001 and was released in theaters in 2002. It has played all over the world to huge audiences, also being rereleased on Blu-Ray by Deaf Crocodile in 2025, hand-in-hand with I MARRIED A STRANGE PERSON.

Bill’s feature film, HAIR HIGH, is a gothic ’50s high-school comedy about a love-triangle that goes terribly bad, with two young, murdered teens returning to their prom to get revenge. It stars the voice talents of Sarah Silverman, David & Keith Carradine, and Dermot Mulroney, and was co-produced by Martha Plimpton. Plympton charted new territory in animation, this time by broadcasting all of his drawing for the film live on the web at www.hairhigh.com. The film was completed in January 2004, released in over 50 cinemas around the country – and was released on DVD.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Bill received a call in the evening from the Assistant of the highly influential musical visionary - Kanye West. There were complications behind the production of the music video they were shooting at the time, and Bill dropped everything to quickly animate a segment in 6 days for the Kanye feat. Adam Levine hit HEARD ‘EM SAY in 2005, which was generously paid for out of West’s pocket. A few years later, Bill was commissioned by Kanye’s team again, this time with the support of Ye’s late mother, Donda. THROUGH THE WIRE: LYRICS & ILLUMINATIONS, a graphic memoir that illustrates the lyrics of twelve Kanye West songs to tell his life story through the pivotal car accident that eventually set him on the course to stardom, published in 2009, unfortunately two years after her passing. West even curated an gallery exhibition for the artwork.

During this time, Bill also became acquainted with the parody music legend, Weird Al, after he had caught some Plymptoons films at Spike and Mike’s. The two partnered on a music video for Yankovic’s DON’T DOWNLOAD THIS SONG in 2006, then their comedic energies combined again in 2011 on a video for TMZ.

Bill’s short film GUARD DOG was his first movie to not use film and has been a hit at film festivals, earning Bill his second Oscar nomination in January 2005. A variety of successful sequels soon followed, GUIDE DOG in 2006, HOT DOG in 2008, HORN DOG in 2009, and COP DOG in 2017. It also inspired a 70 Artists to come together for GUARD DOG GLOBAL JAM in 2011. Throughout his career, Bill has always made 2 to 3 short films a year that keep bringing in a solid income from sales around the world.

Another feature film, IDIOTS AND ANGELS, was completed in 2008 and after a successful run on the film festival circuit, was released in U.S. theaters in 2010. The film features the music of Tom Waits, Pink Martini, Nicole Renaud and Maureen McElheron, and no dialogue. It’s a much more mysterious film than his previous ones, a dark comedy about a man’s battle for his soul. “Because this film has no dialogue,” Plympton says, “I wanted music to play throughout – almost like a long opera – or an extended string of music videos. The look of the film is very Eastern European – something like what Jan Svankmayer might make, or David Lynch if he made animation – very dark and surreal.”

Bill waited a little while before starting his next feature, and used the time to release several successful short films, such as THE COW WHO WANTED TO BE A HAMBURGER in 2010, SUMMER BUMMER in 2012 and DRUNKER THAN A SKUNK came after in 2013. He also partnered with one of his idols, Windsor McCay, on his final film THE FLYING HOUSE PROJECT in 2011, which follows a woman’s dream about escaping foreclosure, taking to the skies with her husband – using their own house as a vehicle! Plympton’s studio remastered the neglected film, digitally cleaning each frame of damaged footage. By adding color, voices, and a new score, Bill hoped that a fresh take on the classic would bring the genius of Windsor McCay to the attention of a new generation of animation fans.

But eventually his plans returned to feature-length animation, and he started work on CHEATIN’, the story of two lovers, Jake and Ella, who encounter jealousy and insecurity after their perfect courtship. Partially inspired by the work of James M. Cain and a past relationship, CHEATIN’ is a tale of exaggerated passion and star-crossed lovers, exploring the dual nature of how two people immensely attracted to each other can also want to kill each other at the same time. CHEATIN‘ may also be the first animated feature partially funded on Kickstarter, with loyal Plympton fans kicking in over $100,000 needed to finish it in 2013.

While waking up one morning and wondering how Hitler got to be such a crazy madman - Bill thought “Wouldn’t it be great if he actually got accepted into The Austrian Art School? And WHAT IF… he actually loved animation and wanted to become the “Disney of Deutschland”. And what if Adolf wanted to take over the world with Deutsch trick films “Der Ring des Nibelungen” - a 10-hour epic animation?” - Thus HITLER’S FOLLY went into production, releasing in 2016. Naturally, the project became a theatrical nightmare that crushed the German society. The film includes lost footage of Hitler animating and some of his earliest cartoons: Herr Maus Michen in Steamboat Wilhelm.

Over 10 years ago, Bill met Jim Lujan at the prestigious San Diego Comic Con, their tables were near each other and they talked many times until Jim handed over his animation work to Bill, who promised to watch it immediately (He did not). However, a few years later on a rainy day with nothing to do, Bill finally checked out the films and he was blown away. He immediately felt a kinship in their sense of humor but with distinctly different art styles. He called Jim immediately “Let’s make a film together!” who loved the idea. A year later REVENGEANCE came to fruition in 2016 - Jim did the script, designs, voices, and music while Mr. Plympton Directed Animation, Storyboards, Color, and Editing. It was literally a 2-man film.

The origin of DEMI’S PANIC, which released in 2021, is from the rich mind of Danny Leonard. He survived the COVID Pandemic and wanted to write a story about the effect that it had on his life. He felt so strongly about his tale that he called upon Mr. Plympton to make a short animated film. Now as you know, Bill is famous for his crazy humor - So what makes this film so unique is that it is the only Plympton film without laughter. However, it’s one of the most powerful and artistically poetic of any of his films - It’s a must-see.

As a Portland native, he formed a friendship with one of his college classmates who had a son that was 10-years-old at the time, coloring and drawing cartoons on the floor. That child grew up to be none-other than the highly regarded American Cartoonist and Writer Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. His father, Homer Groening, remains good friends with Bill to this day, and their relationship has fostered 8 SIMPSONS COUCH GAGS - The most of any guest Animator on the show to date.

Since Mr. Plympton was raised in the wild woods of Oregon, he grew up yearning to be a cowboy. In fact, many of his drawings were tales of them on their horses in the mountainous woods, fighting the good fight. So it only seemed proper that Bill’s 9th feature film would portray that iconic good guy vs bad guy dynamic. A story about a Clint Eastwood-type, SLIDE, a Musician who arrives in an evil logging town to clean up the corruption, flirts with a local Sex Worker, Delilah, whose ambition is to be a Singer and a Star in the Lucky Buck Saloon. On top of that, there is a Hollywood film crew coming to town to make a movie. After scores of great music by Plymptoons regulars Maureen McElheron and Hank Bones for Slide and his guitar, lots of wild sex, and gun fights, The Sourdough Creek dam fails and washes the whole evil mess into the sunset! The film took 7 years to complete, a Kickstarter campaign helped with funding, but the COVID Pandemic halted production. The film had a screening in Annecy in 2023, however, SLIDE officially wrapped in late 2024.

Just before that project, Bill did an animated short for the great Whoopi Goldberg starring a crazy duck. The film didn’t sell (unfortunately) but he did fall in love with the duck character, thus he was inspired to create DUCKVILLE (2025) - A duck village that was coming on hard times and therefore needed tourists to visit the soon-to-be bankrupt town. The ducks devised a plan for a monster attack to get media attention, however, the gentle monster only wants to bake puff pastries.

Currently, Bill still draws constantly and daily in his Chelsea, NY studio. With two shorts, a music video, and a budding feature all being created at the same time, he is a production powerhouse at 79 years old with no signs of stopping any time soon; Always staying true to his famous phrase -

Keep on Drawin’!