An artist and animator, “Tex” Henson started his career at the Disney animation studios, where he worked on such films as Song of the South, Pecos Bill, Peter and the Wolf, and a number of Chip and Dale cartoons. After leaving Disney he worked for a while on the Casper the Friendly Ghost series, and then he made his real contribution to society: he moved to Mexico to supervise 180 animators who were churning out some of the best cartoons ever made — the several series that ran under the Rocky and Bullwinkle banner.
“We were hackin’ ’em out on the cheap, getting the job done,” he once said, noting that most of the animators didn’t speak English or understand the incredibly sophisticated humor they were producing. “But we made ’em as funny-looking as we could under the circumstances and I guess something clicked between the writing and the cartooning.” Henson died after being hit by a car in Texas on December 2. He was 78.