Heavy Metal

Gerald Potterton (born March 8, 1931) is a British/Canadian director, producer and animator. He is best known for directing the cult classic Heavy Metal and his animation work on Yellow Submarine.

Potterton has been nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film: as director on the National Film Board of Canada animated shorts My Financial Career and Christmas Cracker, and as producer for The Selfish Giant.

Personal life

Born in London, Potterton attended the Hammersmith Art School. He emigrated from England to live in Canada in 1955.

Potterton currently lives in Cowansville, Quebec, Canada, where he is still involved in the production of live and animated motion pictures. Inspired by Quebec’s pastoral Eastern Townships, he continues to paint landscapes and aviation subjects.

Professional career

After working as an assistant animator in London, Potterton joined the NFB in 1954 where he directed both animated and live-action films. He collaborated with Harold Pinter on Pinter’s People in 1969 and Buster Keaton on The Railrodder in 1965.

After contributing to George Dunning’s animated feature Yellow Submarine in 1968, he returned to freelance work in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.

During the early 1970s, among other projects, he directed live-action and animated sequences for Sesame Street and The Electric Company.

In 1981 he was hired by producer Ivan Reitman to direct the animated feature Heavy Metal. Potterton coordinated more than one thousand artists, animators and technicians from seventeen countries working in Los Angeles, New York, London, Montreal and Ottawa.

During the 1980s and 1990s, he continued making animated and live-action features for television and video.

Potterton Productions

Established in 1968, this production company produced both live-action and animated films. Apart from Potterton’s own projects, this company produced Peter Sander’s The Selfish Giant and Larry Kent’s Fleur Bleue in 1971, Mike Mills’ The Happy Prince in 1974, The Little Mermaid in 1975, and in 1975 The Christmas Messenger. The company was closed in 1974.

Recent works

Potterton recently directed Sandy Wilson’s musical The Boyfriend at Theatre Lac Brome, and created and directed Peter Piper and the Plane People. Also, through Potterton Studios, he is writing A Stage Too Far. —Wikipedia