Maurice Noble - Later Years

Later Years

In the late 1970s and most of the 1980s, Noble largely withdrew from work in the animation industry to pursue other interests. These included producing fine art, particularly hand-pulled silkscreen prints. In 1987 he received a lifetime achievement Annie Award (from the International Animation Society) for his contributions over the previous 50 years.

About 1989 Noble did development work on Steven Spielberg's Tiny Toon Adventures, and did writing and design for the "Duck Dodgers Jr." episode.

In the mid-1990s Noble rejoined Jones at Chuck Jones Film Productions, serving as art director on Chariots of Fur (1994) and color consultant on several other productions, including Pullet Surprise.

While at the Jones studio, Noble began supervising, training, and mentoring young artists just out of (or still in) school. These artists came to be known as the 'Noble boys and girls'. Many of them became involved in "Noble Tales," a planned series of animated shorts based on folk tales. One such film was Al Tudi Tuhak (1999).

Noble continued to be active in a variety of animation projects, including consultation with Disney artists for their first watercolor backgrounds in half a century (for Lilo & Stitch). Noble died in 2001 at his home in La Crescenta, California.