A Ham in a Role

A Ham in a Role is a Looney Tunes short starring the Goofy Gophers along with an unnamed dog who is based on stage/film actor John Barrymore. The cartoon was directed by Robert McKimson. It was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on December 13, 1949, but some sources list the release date as December 31, 1949. The cartoon draws heavily from the works of William Shakespeare, with its gags relying on literal interpretations of lines from Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Richard III, and Romeo and Juliet. A Ham in a Role would be the last cartoon in the Golden Age of American Animation to star the dog that had opposed the Gophers in their first two appearances (he would be recycled for a single short in the 1990s in the World Premiere Toons series). In addition, this is the first Gophers cartoon to be directed by McKimson; it was supposed to be directed by Arthur Davis, but when Warner Bros. Cartoons reduced from four units to three, A Ham in a Role was reassigned to McKimson, along with animators J.C. Melendez and Emery Hawkins.