# Bud Luckey
**Bud Luckey** (July 28, 1934 – February 24, 2018) was an American animator, character designer, composer, singer, and voice actor whose career ran from hand-drawn commercial animation and *Sesame Street* shorts to character design at Pixar Animation Studios, where he designed Woody, the pull-string cowboy of *Toy Story*, and directed the Oscar-nominated short *Boundin'*.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/bud-luckey) His full name was William Everett Luckey, and colleagues nicknamed him "Bud Low-Key" for his quiet, easygoing manner.[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524726/bio)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born / died | July 28, 1934, Billings, Montana; February 24, 2018, Newtown, Connecticut, at age 83[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/bud-luckey) |
| Pixar role | The studio's fifth animator; worked as character designer, story artist, and voice actor from *Toy Story* (1995) onward[3](https://d23.com/a-to-z/luckey-bud/) • [4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html) |
| Woody design | Suggested turning the lead of *Toy Story* from a ventriloquist dummy into a cowboy; he sketched "200 Woodies" before the final design was chosen[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html) |
| *Boundin'* | Wrote, directed, composed, and performed the 2003 Pixar short; nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film and won the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Short Subject[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395479/awards/) |
| Voice roles | Rick Dicker in *The Incredibles* (2004), Chuckles the Clown in *Toy Story 3* (2010), Eeyore in *Winnie the Pooh* (2011)[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/bud-luckey) |
| *Sesame Street* | Wrote and animated counting films in the 1970s, including "The Alligator King" and "Ladybugs' Picnic," usually singing them himself as the farmer character Donnie Budd[6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524726/bio) |
## Early life and training
Luckey was born in [Billings, Montana](https://www.edgepedia.org/billings-montana), and became interested in animation early: *Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs* (1937) was the first movie he saw in theaters, and by his own account he had decided by age seven that animation was what he wanted to do.[6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/) • [7](https://www.skwigly.co.uk/bud-luckey-from-pixar-animation-studios-in-london/) He served in the U.S. Air Force during the [Korean War](https://www.edgepedia.org/korean-war) and then used the [G.I. Bill](https://www.edgepedia.org/g-i-bill) to attend the Chouinard Art Institute, before it became CalArts.[6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/)
His entry into the profession came as an inbetweener at the commercial studio of Disney animator Art Babbitt, the creator of Goofy, and he worked as Babbitt's inbetweener after that.[8](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Bud_Luckey) • [4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html) After a stint animating on *The Alvin Show* in 1961, he moved to San Francisco and worked as an art director on television advertising.[8](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Bud_Luckey)
## *Sesame Street* and commercial animation
Luckey's best-known work before Pixar was for *Sesame Street*. He wrote and animated a large number of the show's cartoon segments, including "The Alligator King" and "Ladybugs' Picnic," which ran between scenes with [Jim Henson](https://www.edgepedia.org/jim-henson)'s Muppets, and he typically sang the songs himself.[6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/) His hillbilly-fiddler character Donnie Budd introduced young viewers to the numbers two through six.[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html) Muppet Wiki records that he directed the show's animated inserts beginning in 1971 and made a total of 14 counting films.[8](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Bud_Luckey)
During the early 1970s, he started the Luckey-Zamora Picture Moving Company, an animation studio in San Francisco; by the end of the 1980s it had joined with Colossal Pictures, and the combined studio's output included the animated *[Back to the Future](https://www.edgepedia.org/back-to-the-future-tv-series)* series.[6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/) From 1968 to 1984 he also owned and managed an animation studio producing commercials, and he spent two years on early computer-based educational games.[8](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Bud_Luckey)
## At Pixar: Woody and *Toy Story*
By the early 1990s Luckey's curiosity was drawn to Pixar, the Bay Area studio that Apple co-founder [Steve Jobs](https://www.edgepedia.org/steve-jobs) had helped establish in 1986, and he was hired as the studio's fifth animator.[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html) • [3](https://d23.com/a-to-z/luckey-bud/) Sources differ on the exact year: the *San Francisco Chronicle* reports he was hired in 1990, already in his mid-50s,[9](https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2020/pixar-woody-drawings/) while VexoWire and Muppet Wiki both place his joining in 1992.[6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/) • [8](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Bud_Luckey)
⬜His most consequential contribution came on *Toy Story* (1995). The lead character was initially conceived as a ventriloquist dummy with a snarky, even sinister edge; Luckey suggested instead that he be a cowboy doll. "I suggested that they make him a cowboy," Luckey said in 2004, drawing on western figures such as Gabby Hayes and [Edgar Buchanan](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgar-buchanan), while director [John Lasseter](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-lasseter) developed the young [John Wayne](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-wayne) idea.[9](https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2020/pixar-woody-drawings/) Luckey said he "did 200 Woodies," sketching alternatives with pencil and pen before Lasseter selected the rosy-cheeked version that appeared in the film.[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html) He also designed and sculpted the character, and colleagues credit his early drawings and clay sculpt as defining Woody's design permanently.[10](https://www.jonathanpaine.ca/boundin.html) • [6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/)
After *Toy Story*, Luckey worked variously as character designer, story artist, or voice performer on nearly every Pixar film that followed, including *A Bug's Life* (1998), *Toy Story 2* (1999), *Monsters, Inc.*, *Finding Nemo*, *Cars*, *The Incredibles*, and *Ratatouille*.[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html) • [1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/bud-luckey) He also worked in the story department, translating scripts into storyboards; the shot of the camera rising on [Buzz Lightyear](https://www.edgepedia.org/buzz-lightyear) with his first "blink, blink, blink" on Andy's bed is one of his.[6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/) Lasseter called him "one of the true unsung heroes of animation" in a 2004 Pixar documentary on the animator.[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html)
## *Boundin'*
Pixar encourages its employees to submit short-film ideas, and Luckey's *Boundin'* was accepted; work began in January 2003 and continued over the next ten months, producing a film of just over four minutes.[7](https://www.skwigly.co.uk/bud-luckey-from-pixar-animation-studios-in-london/) It tells of a proud dancing sheep whose coat is shorn, leaving him a scrawny object of ridicule, until a wise jackalope teaches him that what is inside will help him rebound from life's troubles.[7](https://www.skwigly.co.uk/bud-luckey-from-pixar-animation-studios-in-london/) • [11](https://history.siggraph.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2004-Art-and-Animation-Catalog-reduced.pdf)
⬜Luckey did nearly everything on it: he wrote, directed, composed the music, performed as the solo singer/narrator, and voiced the characters.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/bud-luckey) He was initially reluctant to sing the accompanying song and to voice the characters himself.[6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/) The film was nominated for the [Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-award-for-best-animated-short-film) and won the 2004 Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Short Subject.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395479/awards/) It was the only project Luckey directed at the studio.[6](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/)
## Voice acting
Although he was a veteran designer, Luckey's voice became familiar to audiences through his Pixar roles. He voiced Rick Dicker, the head of the Superhero Relocation Program, in *The Incredibles* (2004) and the short *Jack-Jack Attack*, Chuckles the Clown in *Toy Story 3* (2010) and the *Toy Story Toons* shorts, and Eeyore in Disney's *Winnie the Pooh* (2011).[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/bud-luckey) • [12](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524726/) *The Incredibles* director [Brad Bird](https://www.edgepedia.org/brad-bird) cast him as Dicker after recognizing his voice from a temp recording by Pixar staff.[13](https://www.movingimagesource.us/files/dialogues/2/90944_programs_transcript_html_253.htm) Casting for Eeyore followed a similar path: *Winnie the Pooh* co-director Don Hall happened to be watching *The Incredibles* while the role was unfilled, heard Luckey as Dicker, and the pitch to the crew, he said, got immediate laughter.[14](https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Exclusive-Interview-Winnie-Pooh-Directors-Stephen-J-Anderson-Don-Hall-25725.html)
## Later years
Luckey semi-retired from Pixar in 2008 but continued to work occasionally for the studio and the parent Disney organization, primarily as a performer of character voices, until his death; he retired permanently in 2014.[1](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/bud-luckey) He had suffered a stroke in 2013, according to his son Andy Luckey.[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html) He died on February 24, 2018, at a hospice facility in [Newtown, Connecticut](https://www.edgepedia.org/newtown-connecticut), at age 83.[4](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html) A personal note: the character Andy in *Toy Story* is named after Luckey's son.[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524726/bio)
## References
1. [Bud Luckey, Television Academy](https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/bud-luckey)
2. [Bud Luckey – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524726/bio)
3. [Luckey, Bud, Disney D23](https://d23.com/a-to-z/luckey-bud/)
4. [Bud Luckey, Pixar animator who designed Woody from 'Toy Story,' dies at 83, The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/bud-luckey-pixar-animator-who-designed-woody-from-toy-story-dies-at-83/2018/03/01/2c922f7c-1d66-11e8-b2d9-08e748f892c0_story.html)
5. [Boundin' (2003) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395479/awards/)
6. [The inside story of Boundin', VexoWire](https://vexowire.com/the-inside-story-of-boundin-the-only-pixar-project-directed-by-one-of-the-studios-greatest-animators/)
7. [Bud Luckey, of Pixar Animation, Talks "Boundin'", Skwigly Animation Magazine](https://www.skwigly.co.uk/bud-luckey-from-pixar-animation-studios-in-london/)
8. [Bud Luckey, Muppet Wiki](https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Bud_Luckey)
9. [Finding Woody: 'Toy Story' turns 25, San Francisco Chronicle](https://www.sfchronicle.com/projects/2020/pixar-woody-drawings/)
10. [Boundin', Jonathan Paine blog](https://www.jonathanpaine.ca/boundin.html)
11. [2004 SIGGRAPH Art and Animation Catalog, SIGGRAPH History](https://history.siggraph.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2004-Art-and-Animation-Catalog-reduced.pdf)
12. [Bud Luckey, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0524726/)
13. [Brad Bird Pinewood Dialogues, Moving Image Source](https://www.movingimagesource.us/files/dialogues/2/90944_programs_transcript_html_253.htm)
14. [Exclusive Interview: Winnie The Pooh Directors, CinemaBlend](https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Exclusive-Interview-Winnie-Pooh-Directors-Stephen-J-Anderson-Don-Hall-25725.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Film people and crafts › Film actors and performers › Voice performers and animation voice actors*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license