Edward Stacey "Tedd" Pierce III (August 12, 1906 – February 19, 1972) was an American screenwriter and voice actor of animated cartoons, principally from the mid-1930s to the late 1950s.
Biography
Pierce was the son of a stockbroker, Samuel Cuppels Pierce, who in turn was the son of Edward S. Pierce, a long-serving treasurer of the St. Louis-based Samuel Cuppels Woodenware Company. Pierce completed his education through the fourth year of high school, according to the 1940 census records.
Pierce spent the majority of his career as a writer for the Warner Bros. "Termite Terrace" animation studio, whose other notable alumni include Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese, contributing storylines and gags for numerous shorts from 1935 until his departure in 1959. Pierce also worked as a writer at Fleischer Studios from 1939 to 1941. Jones credited Pierce in his autobiography Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist (1989) as being the inspiration for the character Pepé Le Pew, the haplessly romantic French skunk due to Pierce's self-proclamation that he was a ladies' man. He had one son, named Geoffrey Pierce, from a former marriage.
He contributed (with Bill Danch) the story of the Tom and Jerry short Tall in the Trap (1962), directed by Gene Deitch.
In his Warners career, Pierce worked with three of the best-known Warner animation directors (Jones, Robert McKimson and Friz Freleng). While rotating between Jones and Freleng (often in collaboration with Michael Maltese) for much of the 1940s, the dissolution of their partnership in 1946 left Pierce reassigned solely to Freleng's unit. Freleng would, however, replace Pierce with Warren Foster (then McKimson's primary storyman) in 1949 owing to his dissatisfaction with Pierce's output, reassigning Pierce to McKimson's unit for much of his remaining tenure at Warner's. Pierce's credited output includes Freleng's Hare Do (1949), Bad Ol' Putty Tat (1949), Bunker Hill Bunny (1950) and Big House Bunny (1950); Jones' Hare Tonic (1945, an early success for both of them) and Broom-Stick Bunny (1956); and McKimson's Hillbilly Hare (1950), Lovelorn Leghorn (1951) and Cat-Tails for Two (1953), the last of which was Speedy Gonzales' first appearance. Because much of Pierce's Termite Terrace career was spent with McKimson's unit, however, it would follow that Pierce was generally overshadowed by his contemporaries Maltese and Foster.
Pierce also got occasional voice work in the shorts: he gave voice to the tough guy in Into Your Dance (1935), Jack Bunny in I Love to Singa (1936), King Bombo in Gulliver's Travels (1939), and the villainous C. Bagley Beetle in Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941), in addition to writing on those films.
He imitated Bud Abbott in one Warner short casting Abbott and Costello as alley cats Babbit and Catstello (A Tale of Two Kitties) and two Warner shorts casting them as mice (Tale of Two Mice and The Mouse-Merized Cat). Pierce also voiced Tom Dover in The Dover Boys, the "tall, thin" character in Wackiki Wabbit, and the French chef Louis in French Rarebit. In addition, in a few shorts containing Jones' Hubie and Bertie characters, Pierce voiced Hubie, and Maltese played Bertie. Thereafter they were voiced by the principal voice actor, Mel Blanc, and Stan Freberg, who had also voiced secondary Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies duos such as the Goofy Gophers and Spike the Bulldog and Chester the Terrier.
While it has been speculated that Pierce did voice-work for coming-attractions trailers for Universal Studios, experts in the voice acting field such as Keith Scott have disputed this point.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
|1936||At Your Service Madame||W.C. Squeals||Voice (uncredited)
|-
|1936||Toy Town Hall||Ben Bernie imitation||Voice (uncredited)
|-
|1936||The CooCoo Nut Grove||Ben Birdie/W.C. Squeals||Voice (uncredited)
|-
|1937||Uncle Tom's Bungalow||Narrator||Voice (uncredited)
|-
|1937||The Lyin' Mouse||||Writer
|-
|1937||The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos||Ben Birdie/Tizzy Fish/Jack Bunny||Voice (uncredited)
|-
|1937||September in the Rain||||Writer
|-
|1938||My Little Buckaroo||||Writer
|-
|1938||A Star is Hatched||||Writer
|-
|1938||Cinderella Meets Fella||||Writer
|-
|1938||Little Pancho Vanilla||||Writer
|-
|1938||The Night Watchman||||Writer
|-
|1939|| Gulliver's Travels || King Bombo || Voice (uncredited)
|-
|1941|| Mr. Bug Goes to Town || C. Bagley Beetle || Voice
|-
|1942||The Draft Horse||||Writer
|-
|1942||Hold the Lion, Please||||Writer
|-
|1942||The Squawkin' Hawk||Rooster||Voice (uncredited)
|-
|1942||Fox Pop ||||Writer
|-
|1942||The Dover Boys at Pimento University; or, The Rivals of Roquefort Hall||Tom Dover/Larry Dover ||Voice (uncredited), writer
|-
|1942||A Tale of Two Kitties||Babbit||Voice (uncredited)
|-
|1942||Ding Dog Daddy||||Writer
|-
|1942||Case of the Missing Hare||||Writer
|-
|1943||To Duck or Not to Duck||||Writer
|-
|1943||Super-Rabbit||Man #2/Football cheerleader|| Voice (uncredited), writer
|-
|1943||Greetings Bait||||Writer
|-
|1943||The Aristo-Cat||Bertie||Voice (uncredited), writer
|-
|1943||Yankee Doodle Daffy||||Writer
|-
|1943||Wackiki Wabbit||Tall castaway||Voice (uncredited), writer
|-
|1944||Hare Force||Sylvester the Dog||Voice (uncredited), writer
|-
|1943||Inki and the Minah Bird||||Writer
|-
|1944||Tom Turk and Daffy||||Writer
|-
|1944||Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears||||Writer
|-
|1944||Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips||||Writer
|-
|1944||Duck Soup to Nuts||||Writer
|-
|1944||Hare Force||||Writer
|-
|1944||Goldilocks and the Jivin' Bears||||Writer
|-
|1944||Lost and Foundling||||Writer
|-
|1945||Odor-able Kitty||||Writer
|-
|1945||Trap Happy Porky||||Writer
|-
|1945||Life with Feathers||||Writer
|-
|1945||Hare Conditioned||||Writer
|-
|1945||Hare Tonic||||Writer
|-
|1946||Holiday for Shoestrings||||Writer
|-
|1946||Quentin Quail||Quentin Quail||Voice (uncredited), writer
|-
|1946||Hush My Mouse||||Writer
|-
|1946||Hair-Raising Hare||||Writer
|-
|1946||The Eager Beaver||||Writer
|-
|1946||Fair and Worm-er||||Writer
|-
|1946||Rhapsody Rabbit||||Writer
|-
|1946||Roughly Squeaking||||Writer
|-
|1947||The Gay Anties||||Writer
|-
|1947||Scent-imental Over You||Crowd||Voice (uncredited), writer
|-
|1947||A Hare Grows in Manhattan||||Writer
|-
|1947||Tweetie Pie||||Writer, Won the 1948 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
|-
|1947||Rabbit Transit||||Writer
|-
|1947||Along Came Daffy||||Writer
|-
|1947||A Pest in the House||||Writer
|-
|1947||House Hunting Mice||||Writer
|-
|1947||Little Orphan Airedale||||Writer
|-
|1947||Slick Hare||||Writer
|-
|1948||A Feather in His Hare||||Writer
|-
|1948||What's Brewin', Bruin?||||Writer
|-
|1948||Back Alley Oproar||||Writer
|-
|1948||I Taw a Putty Tat||||Writer
|-
|1948||Rabbit Punch||||Writer
|-
|1948||Buccaneer Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1948||Bugs Bunny Rides Again||Crowd||Voice (uncredited), writer
|-
|1948||You Were Never Duckier||||Writer
|-
|1948||Hare Splitter||||Writer
|-
|1948||Kit for Cat||||Writer
|-
|1949||Wise Quackers||||Writer
|-
|1949||Hare Do||||Writer
|-
|1949||High Diving Hare||||Writer
|-
|1949||Curtain Razor||||Writer
|-
|1949||Mouse Mazurka||||Writer
|-
|1949||Knights Must Fall||||Writer
|-
|1949||Bad Ol' Putty Tat||||Writer
|-
|1949||Dough for the Do-Do||||Writer
|-
|1949||Each Dawn I Crow||||Writer
|-
|1949||Which is Witch?||||Writer
|-
|1950||Mutiny on the Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1950||The Lion's Busy||||Writer
|-
|1950||Big House Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1950||His Bitter Half||||Writer
|-
|1950||All a Bir-r-r-d||||Writer
|-
|1950||Golden Yeggs||||Writer
|-
|1950||Hillbilly Hare||||Writer
|-
|1950||Bunker Hill Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1950||Canary Row||||Writer
|-
|1951||Room and Bird||||Writer
|-
|1951||French Rarebit||||Writer
|-
|1951||Lovelorn Leghorn||||Writer
|-
|1951||Sleepy Time Possum||||Writer
|-
|1951||Big Top Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1951||The Prize Pest||||Writer
|-
|1952||Who's Kitten Who?||||Writer
|-
|1952||Thumb Fun||||Writer
|-
|1952||Kiddin' the Kitten||||Writer
|-
|1952||Sock a Doodle Do||||Writer
|-
|1952||The Turn-Tale Wolf||||Writer
|-
|1952||Oily Hare||||Writer
|-
|1952||Hoppy-Go-Lucky||||Writer
|-
|1952||The EGGcited Rooster||||Writer
|-
|1952||The Super Snooper||||Writer
|-
|1952||Fool Coverage||||Writer
|-
|1953||Upswept Hare||||Writer
|-
|1953||A Peck o' Trouble||||Writer
|-
|1953||Muscle Tussle||||Writer
|-
|1953||There Auto Be a Law||||Writer
|-
|1953||Plop Goes the Weasel||||Writer
|-
|1953||Cat-Tails for Two||||Writer
|-
|1953||Easy Peckin's||||Writer
|-
|1953||Cats A-Weigh!||||Writer
|-
|1954||Wild Wife||||Writer
|-
|1954||Design for Leaving||||Writer
|-
|1954||Bell Hoppy||||Writer
|-
|1954||Little Boy Boo||||Writer
|-
|1955||When Magoo Flew ||||Writer, Won the 1955 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
|-
|1955||Feather Dusted||||Writer
|-
|1955||Knight-mare Hare||||Writer
|-
|1956||Bugs' Bonnets||||Writer
|-
|1956||Weasel Stop||||Writer
|-
|1956||The High and the Flighty||||Writer
|-
|1956||Broom-Stick Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1956||Rocket Squad||||Writer
|-
|1956||Mixed Master||||Writer
|-
|1956||Stupor Duck||||Writer
|-
|1956||Barbary Coast Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1956||Half-Fare Hare||||Writer
|-
|1956||Raw! Raw! Rooster!||||Writer
|-
|1956||The Slap-Hoppy Mouse||||Writer
|-
|1956||Wideo Wabbit||||Writer
|-
|1956||Two Crows from Tacos||||Writer
|-
|1956||The Honey-Mousers||||Writer
|-
|1957||Bedevilled Rabbit||||Writer
|-
|1957||Cheese It, the Cat!||||Writer
|-
|1957||Boston Quackie||||Writer
|-
|1957||Tabasco Road||||Writer
|-
|1957||Ducking the Devil||||Writer
|-
|1957||Mouse-Taken Identity||||Writer
|-
|1958||Don't Axe Me||||Writer
|-
|1958||Tortilla Flaps||||Writer
|-
|1958||Feather Bluster||||Writer
|-
|1958||Now Hare This||||Writer
|-
|1958||Dog Tales||||Writer
|-
|1958||Pre-Hysterical Hare||||Writer
|-
|1958||Gopher Broke||||Writer
|-
|1959||Mouse-Placed Kitten||||Writer
|-
|1959||China Jones||||Writer
|-
|1959||The Mouse That Jack Built||||Writer
|-
|1959||A Mutt in a Rut||||Writer
|-
|1959||Backwoods Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1959||Cat's Paw||||Writer
|-
|1959||Bonanza Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1959||People Are Bunny||||Writer
|-
|1960||West of the Pesos||||Writer
|-
|1960||Wild Wild World||||Writer
|-
|1960||Crockett-Doodle-Do||||Writer
|-
|1960||Mice Follies||||Writer
|-
|1960||The Dixie Fryer||||Writer
|-
|1960||Dog Gone People||||Writer
|-
|1961||Cannery Woe||||Writer
|-
|1961||Hoppy Daze||||Writer
|-
|1961||Strangled Eggs||||Writer
|-
|1961||The Abominable Snow Rabbit||||Writer
|-
|1962||The Slick Chick||||Writer
|-
|1964||Freudy Cat||||Writer
|-
|1964||Hawaiian Aye Aye||||Writer
|-
|1966||The Astroduck||||Writer (uncredited)
|-
|1966||A-Haunting We Will Go||||Writer (uncredited)
|-
|1968||What's So Bad About Feeling Good?||||Writer (final role)
|}