DANCING RAISINS CREATOR DIES
PORTL A ND, ORE. Will Vinton, an Oscarwinning animator who invented claymation, a style of stop-motion animation, and brought the California Raisins to TV, has died in Oregon. He was 70.
Citing a family statement, The Oregonian reported that Vinton died Oct. 4 after a lengthy battle with multiple myeloma.
He won an Oscar in 1975 for the animated short film Closed Mondays, then founded Vinton Studios in Portland the next year and went on to win three Emmys as a producer. Vinton Studios was best known for the 1986 California Raisins ad campaign featuring Claymation raisins dancing to I Heard It Through the Grapevine, the 1968 song made popular by Marvin Gaye.
“He saw the world as an imaginative playground full of fantasy, joy and character,” Vinton’s children wrote on his Facebook page.