(LOS ANGELES) (AP) - Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.
Barbera died of natural causes at his home with his wife Sheila at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.
With his longtime partner, Bill Hanna, Barbera first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons. The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.
The partners, who had first teamed up while working at MGM in the 1930s, then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1950s with a witty series of animated TV comedies, including "The Flintstones,""The Jetsons,""Yogi Bear,""Scooby-Doo" and "Huckleberry Hound and Friends."
Their strengths melded perfectly, critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his book "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons." Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing.
"This writing-directing team may hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year - without a break or change in routine," Maltin wrote.
"From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from primetime to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture. While he will be missed by his family and friends, Joe will live on through his work," Warner Bros. Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer said Monday.
Hanna, who died in 2001, once said he was never a good artist but his partner could "capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I've ever known."
The two first teamed cat and mouse in the short "Puss Gets the Boot." It earned an Academy Award nomination, and MGM let the pair keep experimenting until the full-fledged Tom and Jerry characters eventually were born.
Jerry was borrowed for the mostly live-action musical "Anchors Aweigh," dancing with Gene Kelly in a scene that become a screen classic.
After MGM folded its animation department in the mid-1950s, Hanna and Barbera were forced to go into business for themselves. With television's sharply lower budgets, their new cartoons put more stress on verbal wit rather than the detailed - and expensive - action featured in theatrical cartoon.
'Rocky and Bullwinkle' Writer Dies a 81
(BEVERLY HILLS, California) (AP) - Chris Hayward, an Emmy-winning television writer who helped develop the bumbling animated Canadian Mountie Dudley Do-Right and other offbeat characters for the Rocky and Bullwinkle TV show, has died. He was 81.
Hayward died of cancer Nov. 20 at this Beverly Hills home, his wife, Linda, told the Los Angeles Times in Sunday editions.
Hayward contributed satire, wordplay and puns for "Rocky and His Friends," a witty cartoon that built a large adult following. The show debuted on ABC in 1959 and was renamed "The Bullwinkle Show" when it moved to NBC in 1961.
Besides its titular flying squirrel and moose, the hit show featured segments including Mr. Peabody, a time-traveling dog with a boy companion, and Dudley, a klutzy hero always in pursuit of his nemesis Snidely Whiplash.
The first episode Hayward co-wrote for the two lead characters was "Rue Britannia," according to "The Moose That Roared" (2000), a history of the show. In the episode, Bullwinkle has to stay in the Abominable Manor in England.
"Shucks, I've been livin' in an abominable manner all my life!" the moose says.
Jay Ward, whose studio produced the show, gave very little instruction to Hayward when it came to reinventing the Do-Right character, which had been around since the late 1940s.
"It's about a stupid Mountie. Just have fun!" Hayward recalled.
The character was voiced by Bill Scott, who also was the voice behind Bullwinkle.
With partner Allan Burns, Hayward later helped create "The Munsters," and in 1968 the pair received an Emmy for their work on the CBS sitcom "He & She."
Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Hayward moved to Los Angeles at age 17. He took a night class in scriptwriting at a local high school and went into television in the 1950s. He worked on "Crusader Rabbit," the first cartoon show created specifically for television, as well as "Get Smart,""My Mother the Car" and "Barney Miller."
In addition to his wife, Hayward is survived by his children, Laurel, Victoria and Tony, from a previous marriage that ended in divorce.
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