Bob Godfrey - Telegraph After completing his studies, Godfrey joined Unilever, where his artistic talents helped him to secure a job with Lintas, the company's advertising agency, as a general assistant. When war broke out Godfrey served in the Royal Marines, after which he returned to Lintas to continue his career. He then seized an opportunity to work in animation with the WM Larkin Studio at the Film Producers" Guild in London. But working on industrial films soon lost its appeal and Godfrey, along with several Larkin colleagues, began to explore more creative avenues - working far into the night in his basement in Tufnell Park. The result of their efforts was an animated film produced in 1952 at a cost of £10 and entitled The Big Parade. With their appetites whetted, Godfrey's crew decided to set up their own studio, calling it Biographic Cartoon Films. The company's first production, Watch the Birdie (1953), proved a triumph of basic animation. Reflecting Godfrey's Goon-ish sense of humour, it won the Ten Best Award from the leading home movie magazine, Amateur Cine World, and also won its makers a commercial commission for Gillette razor blades. Henceforward, television commercials became the mainstay of Biographic's output, the first cartoon commercial to be broadcast on the opening night of Independent Television in 1955 being a Biographic production for Crompton Parkinson lamps. Throughout the 1950s, the company produced numerous commercials for clients such as Quaker macaroni and Esso Blue paraffin, the latter being their longest-running advertising series. For the entertainment side of television, Godfrey's company produced inserts and sequences for a number of comedies, including Michael Bentine's After Hours in 1956; Spike Milligan and Richard Lester's A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred (also 1956); and a further Michael Bentine series, It's a Square World, produced for the BBC in 1957. With the proceeds from their commercial work, and the attention from their entertainment work, the company expanded by moving to larger premises in Dean Street, Soho. There, in 1960, Godfrey produced his own Polygamous Polonius, the first cartoon to reflect the bawdy humour that was a particular aspect of Godfrey's sense of fun. The cartoon was selected for a Royal Film Performance in 1960 and proved to be the precursor of numerous further sex parodies produced by Godfrey: Henry 9 to 5 (1969); Kama Sutra Rides Again (1971); Dream Doll (1977); Instant Sex (1980); and Bio Woman (1981). Dream Doll was nominated for an Oscar as well as for a Bafta. In 1961 Godfrey had followed Polygamous Polonius with The Do-It-Yourself Cartoon Kit, a six-minute send-up of all that animation holds dear. The closing caption, A British Film Made With British Labour, demonstrated Biographic's determination to prove that Britain could create and produce animated films to equal anything in the world . The Rise and Fall of Emily Sprod in 1962 was Godfrey's first collaboration (of many) with the ex-Goon Show writer Stanley Hayward. The film utilised a combination of cut-outs, live action and animation. After making Alf, Bill and Fred in 1964, Godfrey left Biographic to set up his own studio. The Bob Godfrey Movie Emporium produced numerous award-winning films throughout the next several decades. These can roughly be divided into three main groups: the sexual parodies; adventurous forays into serious subjects; and his highly successful children's cartoons for television. The second group includes Godfrey's highly acclaimed L'Art Pour L'Art (1965); Rope Trick (1967); and Great (1975), a 30-minute musical based on the life and exploits of the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, for which Godfrey won his Oscar for Best Animated Film of 1975. Godfrey also found time to teach animation at West Surrey School of Art and Design, as well as running a course on BBC Television called The Do-It-Yourself Animation Show (1974). He was co-chairman of the Education Commission and a director of the executive board of the International Animated Film Association. Bob Godfrey, who won a total of three Baftas, was appointed MBE in 1986. He is survived by his wife, Beryl, and two daughters. Two more daughters predeceased him. Bob Godfrey, born January 27 1921, died February 21 2013