Background
Surry was born to Bert F. and Lydia or Lida B. (Knoblock) Surry in Chelan, Washington, where his father and uncle owned an orchard.
Surry was born to Bert F. and Lydia or Lida B. (Knoblock) Surry in Chelan, Washington, where his father and uncle owned an orchard.
He spent his youth in Washington State. The family moved by 1922 to San Diego. Surry was first credited as an animator at the Walter Lantz studio in the 1933 short Going to Blazes.
When fellow Lantz animator Tex Avery left to take a director"s job at Warner Brothers, Surry, Virgil Ross and Sid Sutherland went with him to work in the original Termite Terrace unit with Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Robert (Bobe) Cannon and assistant animator Elmer Wait.
He is credited on only three Warner Brothers cartoons. Surry left to work at the reorganised Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio where he eventually was placed in the Hanna-Barbera unit to work on Tom and Jerry cartoons, including uncredited work on the 1941 short The Night Before Christmas and 1942 short Dog Trouble.
In 1950, Surry began work at Universal Postal Union. Foreign a brief period in 1952, he returned to the Lantz studio and is credited as animator on three cartoons before returning to Universal Postal Union, where he remained until his death in Los Angeles at age 49. Surry worked on two Oscar-winning cartoons, When Magoo Flew (1954) and Magoo"s Puddle Jumper (1956).
He was also an artist for Dell Comics about the time he went to Universal Postal Union.