William Timym

Who was William Timym?

William Timym, MBE was an artist whose best known work is probably the Bleep and Booster cartoons for the BBC's Blue Peter.

Timym was Austrian, grew up in Vienna and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. He moved to England in 1938 because of the Nazi occupation of Austria and during the Second World War produced a number of works for the Ministry of Information.

He became a naturalised British citizen in April 1949.

He was also a bronze sculptor and created many realistic wildlife sculptures. These include a statue of Blue Peter's dog Petra, a lion bust at Gloucester's Nature in Art museum, a lifesize Sumatran white rhino at Howletts Wild Animal Park in Canterbury and a 15 ft elephant fountain at Saint Louis Zoo. Other cartoons he produced include Bengo the Boxer puppy and "Wuff, Snuff and Tuff".