George Dunning

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The 1968 feature, Yellow Submarine, Dunning's best known work

George Garnett Dunning (1920-1979) was born in Toronto and studied in Canada at the Ontario College of Art, and soon found freelance work as an illustrator. Dunning joined the NFB of Canada in 1943, where he worked with Norman McLaren and contributed to several episodes of the Chants populaires series. From 1944 to 1947 Dunning created many original short films and developed his skills animating articulated, painted, metal cut-outs.

In 1948, he spent a year working for UNESCO in Paris under the mentorship of Czech-born animator Berthold Bartosch. Then in 1949, he and fellow NFB grad Jim McKay created one of Toronto’s first animation studios, Graphic Associates, where he produced commercials and gave Michael Snow his first job in film. In 1956 moved to England to manage UPA’s new London office. After the office went under, he hired many of the UPA staff to work for him and his newly established production company. By 1961, Dunning's production company, TVC, was producing about one hundred commercials a year. During this time Dunning also managed to make many personal short films noted for their surrealistic atmosphere and Kafkaesque themes.

In personal life, Dunning was considered to be first of the known gay staff in movie business, although knowledge of his sexual preference was not known to public until his late few years. He also oversaw the cartoon series “The Beatles” for BBC-TV and this led to his involvement with the film he will always be associated with, Yellow Submarine. Dunning was also responsible for the opening credits of Blake Edwards' A Shot In The Dark.