Derek Lamb, an Academy Award-winning producer of animated short films and the influential former executive producer of the National Film Board of Canada's English Animation Studio, whose films often dealt with social issues, has died. He was 69.
Lamb, a longtime resident of Cambridge, Mass., died of cancer Nov. 5 at a friend's house in Poulsbo, Wash., said his wife, singer-songwriter Tracie Smart.
While serving as executive producer of the National Film Board's English Animation Studio in Montreal from 1976 to 1982, Lamb was creatively involved -- as a producer, director, writer or in a combination of roles -- in more than 100 film and video productions.
During that time, he won an Oscar for producing the 1979 animated short "Every Child," a bittersweet story about an abandoned baby co-written by Lamb. The film, directed by animator Eugene Fedorenko, was produced for UNICEF to celebrate the "International Year of the Child."
"Derek's gracious and generous nature was reflected in his films," Charles Solomon, the author of numerous books on animation, told The Times. " 'Every Child' highlighted the neglect with which children are too often treated; in that film and in his other work for UNICEF, he gave voice to countless individuals who cannot speak for themselves."
During his years at the National Film Board, Lamb also produced the 1978 animated short "Special Delivery," a black comedy about a husband and wife and their mailman, which won an Oscar for writers-directors Eunice Macaulay and John Weldon. And Lamb was executive producer of "The Sweater," which won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts' award as best animated film in 1982.
Among Lamb's other animated short film credits are "The Great Toy Robbery" (story and design, 1963), "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" (director, 1964), "The Shepherd" (writer and background artist, 1970, an Oscar nominee), "The Last Cartoon Man" (writer, 1973), "The Bead Game" (producer, 1977; an Oscar nominee), "Why Me?" (writer-director, 1978), "Karate Kids" (director-writer, 1990) and "Goldtooth" (writer-director, 1996).
In the late 1990s, Lamb was instrumental in developing the Emmy Award-winning animated preschool series "Peep and the Big Wide World" for WGBH-TV, the PBS station in Boston. The series, which debuted last year, is based on a character created by animator Kai Pindal in the late 1980s.
