Arthur "Art" Clokey (October 12, 1921 – January 8, 2010) was an American animator. He was one of the first people to make stop motion clay animation popular. His work began in 1955 with a short movie called "Gumbasia". Clokey's work was influenced by his professor at the University of Southern California, Slavko Vorkapich. He and his wife Ruth later created the clay character Gumby. Gumby and his horse Pokey became popular characters on television. They first appeared in the "Howdy Doody Show", and later got their own series "The Adventures of Gumby".