Charles Thorson

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Charles Thorson, also known as Karl Gústaf Stefánsson, was a Canadian cartoonist, character designer, and children’s author who lived from 1890 to 1966. Born in Gimli, Manitoba to Icelandic-Canadian parents, he is best known for designing an early version of Bugs Bunny and for his work on Disney projects like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the Silly Symphony short Little Hiawatha. He worked at Disney from 1935 to 1937, then moved to MGM to work on The Captain and the Kids, joined Leon Schlesinger Productions in 1938, and later worked for Fleischer Studios. Thorson claimed he created Bugs Bunny by himself. He also wrote two children’s books, Keeko (1947) and Chee-chee and Keeko (1952), and created the character Punkinhead, which appeared in books and Eaton’s catalogs. Much of his work was not publicly credited, and his name was rarely listed in movie credits or studio records. He died in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1966.