OBIT

Filmmaker Art Clokey Dies at 88

Created Gumby in the 1950s.

You may not know Art Clokey's name, but if you were a kid in America a few decades ago, you almost certainly know his work. Clokey, who died Friday at age 88, created the popular clay character Gumby, who starred in the first clay animated television segments and spawned a ubiquitous line of bendable children toys. Gumby debuted in the 1950s on The Howdy Doody Show before moving on to his own show, The Adventures of Gumby. The character has proved remarkably durable across the decades, still attracting over 134,000 fans on Facebook. Clokey, a veteran of World War II, worked with his wife, Ruth Clokey, on his first experimental films in California at USC. His second wife, Gloria, also worked with him on his films, serving as art director on Gumby projects in the 1980s and 1990s before dying in 1998.