Animation and Comics Legend, WWII Draftee Gene Deitch Dies at 95

Gene Deitch, whose Army-themed cartoon "Munro" won the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1960, died April 18 at his apartment in Prague, Czech Republic, at the age of 95. The city had been his home for 60 years.

Born in Chicago in 1924, Deitch was drafted into the U.S. Army upon graduation from high school in 1943 and trained as a pilot. A case of pneumonia in May 1944 ended his military career, and he was honorably discharged.

Deitch created the character of Tom Terrific, who debuted in a comic strip that later became a series of animated shorts that ran on the "Captain Kangaroo" television program.

A Czech studio promised to fund his idea for "Munro," a film based on a Jules Pfeiffer story. What was planned as a brief, 10-day trip became a lifetime stay in Prague after he met his second wife there.

Munro is a four-year-old boy who gets called up by the local draft board and shipped off to basic training. The brass refuse to believe he's a little kid, and he gets treated like he's a malingerer. You can watch the film below.

If "Munro" looks familiar, you might have seen it in theaters as the short film included on the program with the Audrey Hepburn-William Holden classic "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

One of the few Americans allowed to pursue a capitalist career behind the Iron Curtain, Deitch went on to direct episodes of the "Tom and Jerry," "Krazy Kat" and "Popeye the Sailor" cartoon series. He spent the years 1969 to 2008 overseeing animated adaptations of children's books for Weston Woods Studios.

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