Lou Scheimer was a renowned American animation producer, voice actor, and theme score composer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He co-founded the animation studio Filmation in 1962 and served as an executive producer on many of its television shows. As a voice actor, Scheimer is most famously remembered for voicing King Randor and Orko in the animated series "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe". He also provided voices for several secondary characters in the series.
Born in 1928 to a German-Jewish family in Pittsburgh, Scheimer's early life was marked by a significant event - he was involved in a fistfight with members of the antisemitic Nazi Party, which led him to decide to move to the United States. He received his tertiary education at the Carnegie Tech University, later renamed Carnegie Mellon University, graduating in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts.
Scheimer's early career in the animation industry began in the mid-1950s when he was appointed as an art director for Larry Harmon Pictures, a production company producing television cartoons featuring Bozo the Clown and Popeye. It was during this time that he formed a close working relationship with former Disney animator Hal Sutherland, who would later become his business partner.
After Larry Harmon Pictures shut down in 1961, Scheimer and Sutherland joined True Line, a minor production company, and were contracted by SIB Productions to create an animated television series, "Rod Rocket", in 1963. This contract allowed True Line to hire additional personnel, including Norm Prescott, who would later become a close friend and collaborator.
In 1962, Scheimer began working independently on commercials, and soon formed Filmation with Sutherland and Prescott. The company's name was a short form of "film animation", and the trio immediately started working on the animated feature film "Journey Back to Oz" in 1972. However, due to financial problems, it took them about a decade to complete the film.
Filmation's first big break came in 1966 when they were hired by DC Comics to produce an animated adaptation of the superhero Superman. The result was the animated series "The New Adventures of Superman", which was a huge success and led to further animated projects from DC Comics. Filmation went on to produce animated adaptations of Superboy, Aquaman, and Batman.
The company's second big break came with the animated adaptation of Archie Comics, which resulted in the popular series "The Archie Show" in 1968. The series' music was highly popular, and the song "Sugar, Sugar" became the No. 1 song of 1969 on the Billboard charts. Filmation went on to create several spin-offs of the series, including "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" in 1970.
By the early 1970s, Filmation had emerged as a leading company in television animation. However, it was no longer an independent company, as Scheimer and his partners had sold their ownership rights in 1969. The company functioned as a subsidiary of the TelePrompTer Corporation, which was the largest cable television provider in the United States during the 1970s.
Filmation had another hit with the animated adaptation of the Mattel toys, "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe", in 1983. The series was among the earliest first-run syndicated cartoons and had greater artistic freedom than previous projects by Filmation. Scheimer wanted to instill moral values on young viewers, so the series often focused on moral dilemmas and questions concerning the priorities of its heroes.
In 1989, Westinghouse decided to shut down Filmation and sell the studio's properties. Scheimer effectively went into retirement after the end of his studio. In the late 1990s, he was hired by the Dutch company Dreamweavers to create an adult animated film, "Robin and the Dreamweavers", which had problems in finding a distributor.
Scheimer spent the last decades of his life struggling with Parkinson's disease, which eventually caused his death. He was honored with an Inkpot Award for his contributions to animation in 2012 and died on October 17, 2013, two days before his 85th birthday.
