Chuck Couch

Charles Scovil "Chuck" Couch was an American writer and animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios during the 1920s through the 1950s.

Couch was born in California and began work at Disney as an inbetweener through childhood friend Fred Moore. He soon moved up to an animator position by age 23 where he supervise inbetweeners, like Art Babbitt. Most of his first animation jobs revolved around the early Mickey Mouse shorts and Silly Symphonies, such as King Neptune, Santa's Workshop, and Birds in the Spring. He briefly left the studio in 1934 for Charles Mintz Productions where he worked on the Scrappy shorts. In 1936, he returned to Disney.

By 1937, Couch began work as a writer for the company. Starting with Little Hiawatha, he soon teamed up with Carl Barks to work with the Donald Duck unit. He was also part of the story team that conceived what would later become Bambi. However, Couch left the studio in 1941, around the time the Disney animators' strike was in full swing. After doing work for Walter Lantz, Couch joined the military.

Outside of Disney, Couch also worked for Warner Bros. and MGM, where he worked worked on the live action musical Dangerous When Wet as an animator. Eventually, he briefly opened his own studio, Chuck Couch Associates which produced Talking of Tomorrow, an industrial film for AT&T explaining the company's switchover to all number dialing, for which Couch was the animation director. A similar feature hi worked on was called was Mike Kazaleh's Mr. Digit and the Battle of Bubbling Brook. Couch later joined Hanna-Barbara Productions in the 1970s where he worked as a story writer for the Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and Scooby-Doo franchises and created the Christmas special The Tiny Tree. He retired from the industry by 1985.

Couch died on December 23, 1987 in Santa Monica, California. He is buried at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Filmography[]

Year	Film	Position
1931	The Delivery Boy	Animator
1931	The Busy Beavers	Animator
1931	The Cat's Out	Assistant animator (uncredited)
1931	Egyptian Melodies	Assistant animator (uncredited)
1931	The Clock Store	Animator (uncredited)
1931	The Barnyard Broadcast	Animator (uncredited)
1931	The Spider and the Fly	Animator (uncredited)
1931	The Fox Hunt	Assistant animator (uncredited)
1931	The Beach Party	Assistant animator (uncredited)
1931	The Ugly Duckling	Assistant animator (uncredited)
1932	The Bird Store	Animator (uncredited)
1932	The Duck Hunt	Animator (uncredited)
1932	The Mad Dog	Assistant animator
1932	The Bears and Bees	Animator (uncredited)
1932	Just Dogs	Animator (uncredited)
1932	King Neptune	Animator (uncredited)
1932	The Klondike Kid	Animator Background artist (uncredited)
1932	Santa's Workshop	Animator (uncredited)
1933	Birds in the Spring	Animator (uncredited)
1933	Mickey's Mellerdrammer	Animator (uncredited)
1933	Father Noah's Ark	Animator (uncredited)
1933	The Mail Pilot	Animator (uncredited)
1933	Mickey's Gala Premier	Animator (uncredited)
1933	Mickey's Mechanical Man	Animator (uncredited)
1936	Mickey's Circus	Animator (uncredited)
1937	The Worm Turns	Animator (uncredited)
1937	Little Hiawatha	Story (uncredited)
1937	Clock Cleaners	Animator (uncredited)
1938	Self Control	Animator (uncredited)
1938	Boat Builders	Animator (uncredited)
1938	Donald's Better Self	Animator (uncredited)
1938	Donald's Nephews	Animator (uncredited)
1939	Sea Scouts	Story (uncredited)
1940	Donald's Dog Laundry	Story (uncredited)
1940	Mr. Duck Steps Out	Story (uncredited)
1941	Early to Bed	Story
1941	Donald's Camera	Story
1942	Bambi	Story development
1948	Melody Time	Animator Background artist Color and styling (uncredited)