About Bob Godfrey

Bob Godfrey (1921–2013) was a British animator and film director whose career spanned more than fifty years. Born in New South Wales, Australia, he was raised in London and attended Leyton Art School.

Godfrey joined the Larkins Studio in 1950, where he met Keith Learner, Nancy Hanna and Vera Linnecar. In 1954, together with Learner, he co-founded Biographic Films; early work made alongside his Larkins colleagues, including Watch The Birdie (1954), was credited to Biographic. Hanna and Linnecar joined Biographic a few years later. In 1965 he set up his own studio, Bob Godfrey Films, going on to create some of Britain's best-loved animation, including Roobarb, Noah and Nelly in... SkylArk and Henry's Cat. In 1975, his short film Great, a biography of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short, making Godfrey the first British animator to win an Oscar. He was awarded the MBE in 1986.

The Bob Godfrey Collection began around 2008, after Bob retired. Following his death in 2013, the collection grew significantly, as his family took on the ongoing work of looking after his films and preserving his legacy for new audiences to discover.