Phil Mulloy, my life partner, who has died aged 76, was one of Britain’s most fiercely independent voices in animation, known for the dark wit and distinctive visual style of his films.
He found international acclaim with Cowboys (1991), a series of six short films that parodied westerns and masculinity, and were produced by Channel 4 and the Arts Council. Later his Ten Commandments shorts (1994–96) and the Intolerance trilogy (2000–04) offered brutal, funny critiques of ideology and human cruelty.
Phil rejected slick studio polish in favour of rawness, rage and provocation, and as a result developed a cult following as an “anti-animator”. His work was celebrated in retrospectives and DVD collections, including with the British Film Institute’s Phil Mulloy: Extreme Animation (1999) and several releases in France by ED Distribution.
