He arrived at age three in Santa Monica, California, with his sister Helen and his mother, who opened a beauty parlor.

[2] He began his cartoon career while a teenager, working for $50 a week as the assistant of cartoonist E. C. Segar on his Thimble Theatre and Sappo comic strips.

Following Segar's death in 1938, Sagendorf moved to New York and began illustrating marketing materials for King Features, while also developing Popeye toys and games.

In 1964, he explained his working methods: A year after those remarks, he talked on television about Popeye when he appeared on What's My Line?

Wanting to spend more time with his family and confronted with failing eyesight, Sagendorf reduced his output to Sunday strips while Bobby London continued with the Popeye dailies.