Art Clokey, Animator Who Created Gumby, Dies at 88
Art Clokey, the animator who half a century ago created Gumby, that most pliant of pop-cultural figures, died on Friday at his home in Los Osos, Calif. He was 88.
His son, Joe Clokey, said he died in his sleep.
Asparagus green and fashioned from clay, Gumby made his television debut in 1956 on “The Howdy Doody Show.” The next year, he became the star of “The Gumby Show,” in which he embarked on a string of gently quixotic adventures with his supple steed, Pokey. The series was one of the first extended uses of stop-motion animation on television.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/11/arts/television/11clokey.html?ref=todayspaper