Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics History Roundtable The Departed - 2019

Richard Williams, an Academy Award-winning animator best known for his work on “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” has died. He passed at his home in Bristol, UK on Friday at age 86.

A triple Oscar and triple BAFTA winner, Williams also did two of the “Pink Panther” films and “Casino Royale.”

His first film, “The Little Island,” was released in 1958 and won a BAFTA, while his animated adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in 1971 was his first Oscar.

Williams later wrote a book, “The Animator’s Survival Kit” and was animating and writing until he died.

]He was the 1980 Libertarian candidate for vice president of the United States and helped finance the campaign. He founded Citizens for a Sound Economy. He donated to political advocacy groups and to political campaigns, almost entirely Republican. He moved to the Republican Party in 1984; in 2012 he spent over $100 million to oppose the re-election of President Barack Obama. Through Americans for Prosperity and other dark money vehicles, he was a leading source of funding for climate change denial and attacks on environmental regulation, unions, and workers' rights. Greenpeace estimates that the Koch brothers put $127 million into 92 groups involved in preventing action on climate change. His companies are among the biggest polluters in the United States.

Beginning in 2006, the Chronicle of Philanthropy listed Koch as one of the world's top 50 philanthropists.

From 1982 to 2013, Koch contributed $18.6 million to WGBH Educational Foundation, including $10 million to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show Nova. Koch contributed to several charities including Lincoln Center, Sloan Kettering, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and the Dinosaur Wing at the American Museum of Natural History. The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, home of the New York City Ballet, was renamed the David H. Koch Theater in 2008 following a gift of $100 million for the renovation of the theater.

In July 2015 David Koch and his brother were commended by both President Obama and activist Anthony Van Jones for their bipartisan efforts to reform the prison system in the United States.[83][84] For nearly ten years the Kochs together advocated for several reforms within the criminal justice system which include reducing recidivism rates, simplifying the employment process for the rehabilitated, and defending private property from government seizures through asset forfeiture.[84][85] Allying with groups such as the ACLU, the Center for American Progress, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the Coalition for Public Safety, and the MacArthur Foundation, the Kochs maintained the current prison system unfairly targets low-income and minority communities at the expense of the public budget.

If you read about David Koch, he was a curious mix of Libertarian and Republican politics and enormous philanthropy.