Hector the Bulldog
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Hector the Bulldog is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Hector is a muscle-bound bulldog with gray fur and walks pigeon-toed. His face bears a perpetual scowl between two immense jowls. He wears a black collar with silver studs.
Hector (or a prototype) first appeared in 1945's Peck Up Your Troubles, where he foils Sylvester's attempts to get a woodpecker. He made a second appearance in A Hare Grows in Manhattan, leading a street gang composed of dogs in a Friz Freleng-directed short; this is also the only short where the dog has numerous speaking lines. After those shorts, Hector is a minor player in several Tweety and Sylvester cartoons directed by Freleng in 1948 and throughout the 1950s. His usual role is to protect Tweety from Sylvester, usually at Granny’s request. He typically does this through brute strength alone, but some cartoons have him outsmart the cat, such as 1954's Satan's Waitin', wherein Hector convinces Sylvester to use up his nine lives by pursuing Tweety through a series of extremely dangerous situations. In most of his appearances, the bulldog is nameless, though he is sometimes referred to as Spike. Freleng probably did not intend the character to be the same bulldog as the Spike he paired with Chester the Terrier in other cartoons.
Hector’s most prominent role was as a regular cast member in the animated series The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. In the cartoon, he plays Granny's loyal guardian. The show makes Hector's low intelligence his Achilles heel, as Sylvester is constantly outwitting him. Originally played by Mel Blanc, Hector is currently played by voice actor Frank Welker.
Hector also appears in the video game Bugs Bunny & Taz: Time Busters where he guards one of the time gears in Granwich. He is a member of the studio audience in Sheep, Dog, 'n' Wolf.
Looney Tunes and
Merrie Melodies
Television
animation