Mr. Magoo
fictional cartoon character
Quincy Magoo, referred to as Mr. Magoo, is a fictional cartoon character created at the UPA animation studio in 1949. Voiced for many years by Jim Backus, Mr. Magoo is an elderly, wealthy, short-statured retiree who gets into a series of comical situations as a result of his extreme near-sightedness, compounded by his stubborn refusal to admit the problem. However, through uncanny streaks of luck, the situation always seems to work itself out for him, leaving him no worse than before. Bystanders consequently tend to think that he is a lunatic, rather than just being near-sighted. In later cartoons, he is also an actor, and generally a competent one, except for his visual impairment.
The character became UPA's most popular original property and fronted a successful theatrical cartoon series of his own, which remained in production through 1959 before being revived for television. Four UPA Mister Magoo shorts were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film with two shorts winning the award: When Magoo Flew (1954) and Magoo's Puddle Jumper (1956).
In 2002, TV Guide ranked Mr.
The public source identifies “Mr. Magoo” as fictional cartoon character. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Magoo, fictional and cartoon.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1939314. The Library of Congress control number is no2025070880. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1959, 1954 and 1956.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mr. Magoo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.