Animator, Author, Screenwriter. He will be best remembered as an animator and screenwriter but he is also noted as a writer of several western novels. He was born as Henry Wilson Allen in Kansas City, Missouri, on September 12, 1912. He was educated locally, and worked a series of odd jobs including as a stablehand, gold miner, and shop clerk. He later moved to Hollywood, California, where he began writing screenplays and scripts for animated cartoon shorts under the name of Heck Allen and Henry Allen for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studios. He worked with the likes of animator Hugh Harman (1903-1982), and animator Rudolf Ising (1903-1992), on the "Barney Bear," animated series, and with animated director Tex Avery (1908-1980) as a storyboard artist on such classic animated shorts as, "King-Size Canary," "Northwest Hounded Police," and "Swing Shift Cinderella." He was later fired by animation producer Fred Quimby (1886-1965), from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studios because he claimed Tex Avery had merely used him as a sounding board for his own ideas. He then worked with animator Ben Hardaway (1895-1957), at Walter Lantz Productions where he co-wrote several Woody Woodpecker cartoons including, "Wild And Woody!" and " Wet Blanket Policy," until Walter Lantz Productions was shut down in 1948. He then returned to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studios where he again began working with Tex Avery on such animated shorts as, "The First Bad Man," "The Three Little Pups," and "Little Johnny Jet." Besides, "Barney Bear," "King-Size Canary," "Northwest Hounded Police," "Swing Shift Cinderella," "Wild And Woody!" "Wet Blanket Policy," "The First Bad Man," "The Three Little Pups," and "Little Johnny Jet," his many other animated classic animated credits include, "The Captain's Pup" (1938), "Buried Treasure" (1938), "Jitterbug Follies" (1939), "The Bear That Couldn't Sleep" (1939), "Home On The Range" (1940), "The Homeless Flea" (1940), "Gallopin' Gals" (1940), "The Lonesome Stranger" (1940), "Little Cesario" (1941), "The Flying Bear" (1941), "The Bear And The Beavers" (1942), "Chips Off The Old Block" (1942), "Wild Honey," or "How To Get Along Without A Ration Book" (1943), "Who Killed Who?" (1943), "Screwball Squirel" (1944), "Happy-Go-Nutty" (1944), "Big Heel-Watha" (1944), "The Screwy Truant" (1945), "Jerky Turkey" (1945), "The Shooting Of Dan McGoo" (1945), "Wild And Woolfy" (1945), "Lonesome Lenny" (1946), "The Hick Chick" (1946), "Henpecked Hoboes" (1946), "Hound Hunters" (1947), "Red Hot Rangers" (1947), "Uncle Tom's Cabaña" (1947), "Slap Happy Lion" (1947), "What Price Fleadom" (1948), "Little "Tinker" (1948), "Half-Pint Pygmy" (1948), "Lucky Ducky" (1948), "Dog Tax Dodgers" (1948), "The Cat That Hated People" (1948), "Scrappy Birthday" (1949), "Drooler's Delight" (1949), "The House Of Tomorrow" (1949), "Puny Express" (1950), "Sleep Happy" (1951), "Rock-A-Bye Bear" (1952), "Caballero Droopy" (1952), "The Little Wise Quacker" (1952), "Busybody Bear" (1952), "Barney's Hungry Cousin" (1953), "Cobs And Robbers" (1953), "Heir Bear" (1953), "T.V. Of Tomorrow" (1953), "Wee-Willie Wildcat" (1953), "Half-Pint Palomino" (1953), "Drag-A-Long Droopy" (1954), "The Impossible Possum" (1954), "Billy Boy" (1954), "Sleepy-Time Squirrel" (1954), "Homesteader Droopy" (1954), "Bird-brain Bird Dog" (1954), "The Farm Of Tomorrow" (1954), "The Flea Circus" (1954), "Dixieland Droopy" (1954), "Field And Scream" (1955), "Deputy Droopy" (1955), and "Cellbound" (1955). He is also credited for "Woody Woodpecker And His Friends" (1982), "Tex Avery, The King Of Cartoons" (1988), and "The Tex Avery Show" (1997), the last one being released after his death. He will be best remembered as an animator and screenwriter but he is also noted as a writer of several western novels, including "The Blue Mustang" (1956), which he wrote under the pseudonyms Will Henry and Clay Fisher to avoid any trouble. At least eight of his novels were made into Hollywood films. Besides, "The Blue Mustang" (1956), his many other western novels include, "No Survivors" (1950), "Red Blizzard" (1951), "Wolf-Eye, The Bad One" (1951), "Santa Fe Passage" (1952), "To Follow A Flag" (1953), "War Bonnet" (1953), "Yellow Hair" (1953), "Death Of A Legend" (1954), "The Fourth Horseman" (1954), "The Tall Men" (1954), "The Big Pasture" (1955), "The Brass Command" (1955), "Who Rides With Wyatt" (1955), "Red Brother And White" (1955), "The North Star" (1956), "The Texas Rangers" (1957), "Yellowstone Kelly" (1957), "The Seven Men At Mimbres Spring" (1958), "The Crossing" (1958), "Orphan Of The North" (1958), "From Where The Sun Now Stands" (1960), "Journey To Shiloh" (1960), "Nino: The Legend Of The Apache Kid" (1961), "The Return Of The Tall Man" (1961), "The Feleen Brand" (1962), "San Juan Hill" (1962), "The Pitchfork Patrol" (1962), "The Gates Of The Mountains" (1963), "MacKenna's Gold" (1963), "Valley Of The Bear" (1964), "In The Land Of The Mandans" (1965), "The Last Warpath" (1966), "Custer's Last Stand: The Story Of The Battle Of The Little Big Horn" (1966), "One More River To Cross" (1967), "Sons Of The Western Frontier" (1968), "Genesis Five" (1968), "Maheo's Children: The Legend Of Little Dried River" (1968), "The Day Fort Larking Fell" (1968), "Outlaws And Legends" (1969), "Tayopa!" (1968), "See How They Run" (1970), "Starbuck" (1972), "Chiricahua" (1972), "The Bear Paw Horses" (1973), "Apache Ransom" (1974), "Sex And Pain" (1975), "I, Tom Horn" (1975), "Black Apache" (1976), "From Where The Twilight Zone" (1976), "Summer Of The Gun" (1978), "Nine Lives West" (1978), and "Seven Card Stud" (1981). Another five western novels including, "The Legend Of Sotoju Mountain" (2002), "Winter Shadows" (2003), "The Hunkpapa Scout" (2004), "The Scout" (2005), and "Medicine Road" (2006), were released after his death. For his western novels, he was awarded the Saddleman Award, and he was the recipient of the Spur Award five times which was presented to him by the Western Writers of America. His many other awards include being awarded the Levi Strauss Award for Lifetime Achievement. He passed away following a battle with pneumonia in Van Nuys, California, on October 26, 1991, at the age of 79, and he was buried in Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village, California. His older brother Robert Allen was an animator who also worked for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio.