Arthur Clokey was the pioneering stop-motion animator who created the character Gumby.

Clokey was born Arthur Charles Farrington in 1921 in Detroit, Michigan. As a child he temporarily lived in an orphanage before being adopted by Joseph Clokey, an organist and composer. Clokey studied at Pomona College and Miami University before joining the film program at the University of Southern California.

While at USC Clokey worked with famed filmmaker Slavko Vorkapich and began his landmark project GUMBASIA. Clokey's other experimental shorts included MANDALA and THE CLAY PEACOCK. Clokey also created animated shorts for the "Howdy Doody Show" and eventually created "The Gumby Show."