He was at the foot of the canyon until the last moment. Last summer she premiered the blockbuster D’Artacán y los tres Mosqueperros and was already preparing the remake of Willy Fog for the big screen in musical format. Claudio Biern Boyd was, and he loved to be told, the Spanish Walt Disney.
The animated film producer, who died yesterday at the age of 81, was born in Palma de Mallorca in 1940, the son of a Catalan father and a Scottish mother. His maternal grandfather had come to Spain to start the Fabra i Coats textile factory. He still a child he moved to Barcelona where he studied in one of the best schools in the city. He was a good university student and graduated in Law from Deusto. He was called to do more traditional things, but the world of animation crossed his life and he gave himself body and soul.
A blessing for the kids who grew up in the 80s, because thanks to the dedication and imagination of Biern Boyd they were able to enjoy the adventures of the Muskehounds, the travels of Willy Fogg, the love of nature of David the Gnome, of the adventures of Ruy, the little Cid, the outrages of Zipi and Zape or the misdeeds of Montadelo and Filemón.
All these series, which enlivened the Saturday afternoon table at a time when the internet and on-demand platforms were still something of science fiction, emerged from BRB Internacional, the production company created by Biern Boyd in 1972. And yes, children of the 70s also have a lot to thank the producer, because his company started as a distributor of the series created by Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros.
Tom and Jerry, The Muppets, Marco, Maya the Bee, Vickie the Viking, The Pink Panther… almost all the animation that entertained the little ones of that generation came to Spain thanks to BRB Internacional. Biern Boyd remembered The Pink Panther with special affection, perhaps because she met Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers in Switzerland and spent a few days with them.
Or perhaps because the series allowed him to put into practice one of the first merchandising initiatives in Spain: the producer convinced the directors of Danone, who were very reluctant, to give away stickers from the series in the yoghurts. The proposal was a success: from that moment on, all the children claimed their yogurt.
Tireless, Biern Boyd recently created another production company, Apolo Films, which last year was in charge of renewing and reinventing little D’Artacán and his Muskehounds to turn them into a feature film. The film, directed by Toni García, dazzled a new generation of children and led the box office in countries such as the United Kingdom and Portugal.
Soccer was another of Biern Boyd’s great passions. He was a fireproof parakeet and was on the board of RCD Espanyol, of which he became vice president, in three stages 1986-1989, 1993-1994 and 2004-2006. He was even a candidate for the presidency of the club, although he was not elected.
The producer received countless awards such as the Extraordinary Talent Award from the Television Academy in 2017, the Best Communicator Award with Children at the El Chupete International Children’s Communication Festival in 2014, the Biznaga de Oro 2012 at the Malaga Festival or the Medal for President Macià work. In November he would have been 82 years old.
