Some of animation's most memorable seem like real people, partly because their appearance
and personalities were actually inspired by real people.
Here are a few memorable examples of beloved cartoon characters and their real-life counterparts.
Mr. Burns - The Simpsons
It took a little bit of a lot of fearsome individuals to add up to the most evil man
in Springfield.
Simpsons creator Matt Groening says he got Burns' demeanor and some of his appearance
from David Bailey, his high school math teacher.
"Am I a capitalist?
Do I believe in the free enterprise system?
Yes.
Check.
Am I greedy?
No.
I think I'm a very generous person."
Then he added in a little bit of Standard Oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller so he'd appear
more like, quote, "the embodiment of corporate greed."
"Family.
Religion.
Friendship.
These are the three demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business."
When it came time to render him in cartoon form, animator David Silverman took other
inspirations, including the body of a praying mantis and the head and face of Barry Diller
— the founder of the Fox network.
Bugs Bunny
The reason Bugs Bunny eats carrots has more to do with classic Hollywood movie star Clark
Gable than the dietary preferences of real rabbits.
Probably best known today for his role as Rhett Butler in 1939's Gone With the Wind,
Gable won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1934 comedy It Happened One Night,
portraying a sarcastic and scrappy unemployed newspaper reporter.
In one scene, he discusses his hitchhiking skills — while munching on a carrot…
"It's all a matter of knowing how to handle it."
"You're an expert, I suppose?"
"Expert?
I'm gonna write a book about it."
Animator Friz Freleng said he lifted Gable's behavior in this scene when creating the sarcastic
and scrappy Bugs …
"I live here.
It's my home, such as it is."
Rocko - Rocko's Modern Life
Rocko is anxious, overwhelmed, and out of step with the world around him — like the
stock male character in a number of Woody Allen movies, often played by Allen himself.
In his pitch to Nickelodeon, Rocko's Modern Life creator Joe Murray described his title
character — a wallaby with an Australian accent — as "a young, anthropomorphic Woody
Allen, who has just moved away from home into a surrealistic adult world."
Troy McClure - The Simpsons
You might remember him from The Simpsons as an actor and heartthrob well past his prime,
who can only get work in B-movies, educational films, and infomercials.
"A few weeks ago, I was a washed up actor with a drinking problem.
Then Brad Goodman came along and gave me this job and a can of fortified wine."
His name combines two hunky actors who've been largely forgotten: Troy Donahue and Doug
McClure.
Simpsons writer Mike Reiss revealed on a Simpsons DVD commentary track that he met Doug McClure's
daughter, who told him her dad figured out they were making fun of him…and that his
kids called him "Troy" when he wasn't in the room.
That's brutal...
Chuckie - Rugrats
While he still might be best known as the frontman of forward-thinking rock band Devo,
Mark Mothersbaugh is now one of the most sought after film composers working in movies and
TV.
Not only did he create Rugrats' memorably weird synth and vocal-based music,
...but his unique personal style also inspired the design
of Chuckie, one of the show's lead characters.
Ursula - The Little Mermaid
The villainous sea witch in the 1989 Disney classic was inspired by Glenn Milstead, better
known as Divine, star of several John Waters films.
Little Mermaid lyricist and producer Howard Ashman knew Divine, having once frequented
the same underground club scene in Baltimore.
Ashman worked with Disney artists on preliminary sketches to add in a shock of hair, a ton
of eyeshadow, and other features that made Ursula look almost exactly like Divine.
Krusty the Clown - The Simpsons
In the early days of television, a guy named James Allen, better known as Rusty Nails,
had a show on local Portland TV that aired on Saturday mornings.
Simpsons creator Matt Groening grew up in Portland and watched the show as a kid, and
created Krusty the Clown in honor of Rusty, although he says Rusty wasn't nearly as surly
and disenchanted.
"I could pull a better cartoon out of my … hey!
Whoa!
Wasn't that great, kids?"
Butters - South Park
Eric Stough has been helping make South Park since the early 1990s, when it was just a
couple of crudely animated Christmas-themed shorts.
Today, Stough still works as the animation director for the long-running series.
Another indelible contribution to the show: He's the inspiration for the sweet, naïve,
innocent, and incredibly unlucky Butters.
Stough says he's almost as agreeable as Butters, and had a similar strict upbringing.
The other South Park guys once nicknamed him Little Brother, which evolved into Little
Buddy, then Budders…then Butters.
"Kim Kardashian is so sexy.
Her butt is like a big mountain of pudding."
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