Charles Bear Mintz (November 5, 1889^[1] – December 30, 1939)^[2] was an American film producer and distributor who assumed control over Margaret J. Winkler's Winkler Pictures after marrying her in 1924. The couple had two children, Katherine and William. Between 1925 and 1939, Mintz produced over 370 cartoon shorts.

Life before the film industry

Charles B. Mintz was born in York, Pennsylvania son of Wolf Mintz, owner of a grocery store. As a child Mintz possessed a great skill in photography. Mintz Attended a York High School. Mintz later enrolled in the Brooklyn Law School and graduated.^[3]

Career

Charles Mintz was unhappy with the production costs on Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks's Alice Comedies, and asked the two to develop a new character. The result was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the first animated character for Universal Pictures.^[4] In February 1928, when the character proved more successful than expected, Mintz secretly made a contract with Disney animators. The only one who did not accept the distributor's contract was Ub Iwerks, aware of the deception, since Mintz stole Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from Disney and moved the production of the Oswald cartoons to his new Winkler Studio, along with Margaret Winkler's brother, George. The following year, Universal took Oswald from Mintz and awarded the Oswald contract to Walter Lantz. Mintz then focused on the Krazy Kat series, which was the output of a Winkler-distributed property.

The Winkler Studio became known as the Mintz Studio after he took over in 1929. From 1930 to 1931 Mintz produced 12 Toby the Pup cartoons for RKO. In 1933, Mintz's studio (Winkler Pictures) became known as Screen Gems. Mintz produced two theatrical cartoon series in the 1930s for Columbia Pictues Scrappy (1930-1947) was his biggest success which continued production after Mintz died, and Color Rhapsodywhich began in 1934 and continued until 1947. ^[5] Fables began in 1939 and continued until 1942.^[6]

In 1939, Mintz became indebted to Columbia, which resulted in him selling the studio to Columbia Pictures.

After a heart attack, Mintz died on December 30, 1939. Screen Gems remained open until 1946. The name was later used for Columbia's television division, among other things.^[7] Walt Disney mentioned in an interview that Mintz cultivated his standards for high-quality cartoon movies, and he kept emphasizing them even after their contract ended.^[8]

Mintz was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Short Subject. His first nomination was in 1935 for Holiday Land, and he was nominated again in 1938 for The Little Match Girl.

Charles Mintz was portrayed in the feature film Walt Before Mickey by Conor Dubin.