Harold McCready

(1897-1972)

Harold McCready was born in Salford, Manchester on 22 February 1897, the son of Samuel McCready and his wife Eliza. He started work aged 14 as a colliery labourer. At 18 he joined the Notts & Derby Regiment, seeing active service in the summer of 1915.

After the War he became a commercial artist, and was hired as one of the animation team on the Bonzo cartoon series produced by New Era Films during 1924-5. Animator Brian White recalls:

"A further diversion was being taught to whirl a lassoo by another of the animators, McCready. I think he had pretensions of being a cowboy."

Bonzo was McCready's only involvement with animation. He continued working as an illustrator and poster designer, and by the 1930s had established himself as a comic strip artist. In the 1950s he specialised in full colour comics for younger children, such as Playhour and Tiny Tots. He died at Richmond upon Thames in 1972.

Filmography

Links to Other Sites

Bear Alley: Harold McCready Biographical details on Steve Holland's comics website.

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