The story is questionable, however, since the Lantzes were not married until after Woody made his screen debut. As both Walter and Gracie told Dallas attorney Rod Phelps during a visit, Walter wanted to shoot the thing, but Gracie suggested that her husband make a cartoon about the bird, and thus Woody was born. A noisy woodpecker outside their cabin kept the couple awake at night, and when a heavy rain started, they learned that the bird had bored holes in their cabin's roof. Brought to the park by Universal Studios, Woody and friends remain there despite Universal no longer having a financial stake in the park.Īccording to Walter Lantz's press agent, the idea for Woody came during the producer's honeymoon with his wife, Gracie, in Sherwood Lake, California. Woody Woodpecker and friends are also icons at the PortAventura Park in Salou, Spain. He also made a cameo alongside many other famous puppet characters in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Woody has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on 7000 Hollywood Boulevard. Woody Woodpecker cartoons were first broadcast on television in 1957 under the title The Woody Woodpecker Show, which featured Lantz cartoons bookended by new footage of Woody and live-action footage of Lantz. The character has been revived since then only for special productions and occasions, save for one new Saturday morning cartoon, The New Woody Woodpecker Show, for the Fox Network in the late 1990s/early 2000s.

Lantz produced theatrical cartoons longer than most of his contemporaries, and Woody Woodpecker remained a staple of Universal's release schedule until 1972, when Lantz finally closed down his studio. Woody was originally voiced by prolific voice actor Mel Blanc, who was succeeded by Ben Hardaway and later by Grace Stafford, wife of Walter Lantz. Woody's character and design would evolve over the years, from an insane bird with an unusually garish design to a more refined looking and acting character in the vein of the later Chuck Jones version of Bugs Bunny. Woody was created in 1940 by cartoonist Walter Lantz and storyboard artist Ben 'Bugs' Hardaway, who had previously laid the groundwork for two other screwball characters, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, at the Warner Bros.

Though not the first of the screwball characters that became popular in the 1940s, Woody is perhaps the most indicative of the type. Woody Woodpecker is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic acorn woodpecker who appeared in theatrical short films produced by the Walter Lantz animation studio and distributed by Universal Studios.

Old woody woodpecker cartoons