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Bill Plympton (born April 30, 1946) is an American animator, director, graphic designer, cartoonist, screenwriter and producer best known for his 1987 Academy Award-nominated animated short Your Face and his series of shorts Guard Dog, Guide Dog, Hot Dog and Horn Dog. Plympton's illustrations and cartoons have been published in The New York Times and the weekly newspaper The Village Voice, as well as in the magazines Vogue, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Penthouse, and National Lampoon. His political cartoon strip Plympton, which began in 1975 in the SoHo Weekly News, eventually was syndicated and appeared in over 20 newspapers. In 1988, his animated short Your Face was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. He also became known for other animated short films, including 25 Ways to Quit Smoking (1989) and Enemies (1991), the latter of which was part of the Animania series on MTV, where many of his other shorts were shown. In 1992, his self-financed, first feature-length animated film, The Tune debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. His work also appeared on the 1992–1993 Fox comedy series The Edge. In 1993, he made his first live action film, J. Lyle. In 1995, he contributed animation and graphics to a computer game collection, Take Your Best Shot. He also published a comic book in 2003, The Sleazy Cartoons of Bill Plympton. Plympton's 2008 80-minute feature, Idiots and Angels presented by Terry Gilliam, had no dialogue. Plympton directed the segment "On Eating and Drinking" in the 2014 animated film The Prophet, adapted from Kahlil Gibran's book The Prophet. In 2020, Plympton released a Kickstarter for his new animated comedy western, Slide. The funding was successful and Plympton had planned on finishing the film by 2022.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2025
Slide
Movie Animation
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2025
Whale 52
Movie Director
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2025
Duckville
Movie Director
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2023
Downwind
Movie Title Illustration
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2022
Claydream
Movie Self
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2022
Lipstick of the Brave
Movie Director
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2021
Demi’s Panic
Movie Director
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2020
The One-Minute Memoir
Movie Writer
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2019
Animation Outlaws
Movie Self
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2019
Sex & Violence 3
Movie Writer
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2018
No Snow for Christmas
Movie Writer
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2018
Trump Bites
TV show Director
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2018
The Modern Lives
Movie Director
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2017
Good Advice
Movie Director
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2017
Cop Dog
Movie Director
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2016
Revengeance
Movie Director
More credits
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2016
Hitler's Folly
Movie Nazi Soldier
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2015
The Loneliest Stoplight
Movie Writer
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2015
The Brainwashing of My Dad
Movie Animation Director
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2015
Bill Plympton's Revengeance Kickstarter Project
Movie Writer
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2015
The Gastronomic Shark
Movie Director
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2014
ABCs of Death 2
Movie Director
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2014
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet
Movie Director
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2014
Cheatin'
Movie Director
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2014
Footprints
Movie Director
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2013
The Ornaments
Movie Ornament #1
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2013
Drunker Than a Skunk
Movie Director
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2012
Tiffany the Whale: Death on the Runway
Movie Director
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2012
Waiting for Her Sailor
Movie Director
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2012
Bill Plympton's Cheatin' Kickstarter Project
Movie Writer
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2012
Summer Bummer
Movie Director
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2011
Ingrid Pitt: Beyond the Forest
Movie Character Designer
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2011
The Winsor McCay Resurrection Project
Movie Writer
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2011
Adventures in Plymptoons!
Movie Self
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2011
Guard Dog Global Jam
Movie Director
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2011
The Oscar Nominated Short Films 2011: Animation
Movie Director
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2010
The Cow Who Wanted To Be a Hamburger
Movie Writer
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2009
Mexican Standoff
Movie Director
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2009
Horn Dog
Movie Director
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2008
Random! Cartoons
TV show Director