Anderson was a nephew[6] of Mighty Mouse producer Paul Terry, and began his career in 1938, working summer vacations, during college,[7] at his Terrytoons animation studio.[1] Anderson served in Navy intelligence during World War II.[5]
Anderson pitched a "limited animation" cartoon series for TV to his uncle, Paul Terry, but 20th Century Fox, who distributed Terrytoons cartoons, saw TV as a threat.[8]
After the war, Anderson and Jay Ward, a former real-estate salesman[9] and childhood friend, formed a business in the late 1940s to pitch cartoon ideas to television, including Crusader Rabbit, Rocky, Bullwinkle, and Dudley Do-Right. In 1948, Anderson and Ward created a television pilot, "The Comic Strips of Television"[10][11][12]
Only Crusader Rabbit was accepted, and after Anderson's other cartoon ideas failed to sell, he joined a San Francisco advertising agency, becoming an art director,[5] while Ward moved to Los Angeles to try to sell TV studios on a Bullwinkle series.
Anderson saw a 1991 documentary about the show which did not mention his name, he filed suit against Jay Ward Productions, two years after Jay Ward's death.[5] Anderson, who had not received public recognition for creating Dudley Do-Right, Bullwinkle and Rocky, learned the characters had been copyrighted in Ward's name alone.[13] Consequently, Anderson sued Ward's heirs to reclaim creator credit.[1] In 1993[1] or 1996,[13] (sources differ), Anderson received a settlement and a court order acknowledging him as "the creator of the first version of the characters of Rocky, Bullwinkle and Dudley."[1]
Ted Key, creator of the comic strip Hazel, had a similar situation with his characters Mr. Peabody and his pet boy Sherman.[14]
Anderson died due to complications of Alzheimer's disease at the age of 90 on October 22, 2010, at a nursing home in Carmel, California.[1][15] He was survived by his wife of 36 years, Patricia Larsen Anderson, his third spouse following divorces from first wife Gail and second wife Beverly.[1] He had two children from his first marriage, sons Terry and Scott, and three stepchildren, Matthew Kennedy, Carolyn Kennedy, and Daniel Kennedy.[1][16]
