William Hanna, Animation Legend, 90

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

Thursday March 22 9:11 PM ET

Animation Legend William Hanna Dead at 90 

By Arthur Spiegelman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Animation legend William Hanna, who with partner
Joseph Barbera turned television into their own personal cartoon world,
creating such characters as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and the
Flintstones, died on Thursday, a spokesman for Warner Brothers said.

Hanna, the co-chairman and co-founder of Hanna Barbera Studios, died at
his home in North Hollywood, Warner Bros. spokesman Scott Rowe said. He
was 90 years old. The cause of death was not immediately released.

Hanna and Barbera, who used to do five five-minute Tom and Jerry film
cartoons a year for MGM, were doing up to 11 half hour shows on TV a week
at the height of their fame.

Ultimately they produced 3,000 half-hour shows creating such characters as
Huckleberry Hound, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, the Jetsons, Atom Ant, Jonny
Quest, Quick Draw McGraw, Top Cat, Magilla Gorilla, Pixie and Dixie, Josie
and the Pussycats and, of course, Boo Boo, the sidekick and conscience of
Yogi Bear who warned, ``Mr Ranger is not going to like that.''

Among their most famous shows was ``The Flintstones'' a ``modern stone age
family'' whose head of the house, Fred Flintstone, a character with Jackie
Gleason girth and overtones, was famed for the shout of
``Yabba-dabba-doo.''

Hanna and Barbera met on the lot of MGM in 1937 where they created the
famed ``Tom and Jerry'' cartoon series. They formed their own animation
company Hanna-Barbera in 1957 after the phone rang and they were told that
the animation division at MGM was being shut.

Besides ``Tom and Jerry,'' they had made film history at MGM by mixing
animation and live action sequences in such classic films as Gene Kelly's
``Anchors Away'' and ``Invitation to Dance.'' They also created a similar
sequence for Esther Williams in ``Dangerous When Wet.''

``You have to realize that two guys who worked for 20 years on 'Tom and
Jerry' and had won every award including seven Oscars could not understand
why the phone rang and a voice said 'Close the studio,''' Barbera, who is
89, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times last year.

He added, ``There was no warning, It was just close the studio. We were
the best in the business and what were we going to do now? Sell
hamburgers?.''

Instead, the two turned to television and a created a simpler and less
expensive form of animation made especially for the small screen.

Sidney Jacobson, a veteran animation editor who created the Ritchie Rich,
Wendy the Witch and Hot Stuff characters for cartoon rival Harvey
Entertainment, called Hanna and Barbera ''giants in the industry ... They
created television animation. ... And they created a giant array of
characters that are still on today.''

Jacobson said the ``limited animation'' technique they pioneered
essentially was a ``speedier animation with less detail in background.''

Born in Melrose, New Mexico on July 14, 1910, Hanna received early
training as an engineer. He began his animation career during the
Depression when he took a position in the ink and paint department of
Hollywood's Harman-Ising studios.

The Hanna-Barbera studio has been owned by Warner Bros., a unit of AOL
Time Warner Inc., since 1996.

The duo received a star on the Hollywood walk of fame in 1976 and were
inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1993.

Hanna was involved with the studio until his death. He was also a charter
member of the Boy Scouts of America and remained active in the
organization throughout his life.

Hanna is survived by wife, Violet, two children, and seven grandchildren. 



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