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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Animation legend Joe Barbera dies</SPAN>
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Wednesday, December 20, 2006
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>Legendary Hollywood animator Joseph Barbera, whose character creations include Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Yogi Bear, Tom & Jerry and Scooby-Doo, died on Monday at age 95, the Warner Bros film studio said in a statement.
He died at his home in the Los Angeles-area community of Studio City with his wife Sheila by his side, Warner Bros said. No further details were disclosed.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Barbera founded Hanna-Barbera Studios with his partner William Hanna nearly 50 years ago, and it grew to become one of Hollywood's best known animation companies, producing hundreds of cartoons and winning numerous awards.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Barbera met Hanna, who died in 2001 at age 90, at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film studio in 1937 and first worked together on the cartoon, Puss Gets The Boot, which led to the creation of famous cat and mouse friends, Tom and Jerry.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The animation creators won wide acclaim in 1945 when they were responsible for getting Tom and Jerry to dance on movie screens alongside the very real Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh. Tom And Jerry Tales, which continues to be broadcast, shows the pair up to the same chases and tricks.
The creators left MGM in the 1950s when the studio shut down its cartoon unit believing TV would eventually end animation on movie screens.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Spurred by the challenge of creating cartoons for the new medium, the pair formed Hanna-Barbera Studios in 1957, where over the years they created characters like the stone age Flintstone family, the space age Jetson clan, the ghost-hunting dog Scooby-Doo and the goofy Yogi Bear.
The Flintstones became the first animated TV series to air on prime time US television, the first to feature animated human characters and the first to run beyond the standard six or seven-minute format. Its cartoons still air in over 80 countries around the world.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the 1970s, the pair landed a hit with the Scooby-Doo character, a lovable Great Dane who worked with teenage ghost hunters to solve mysteries in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? It was produced for 17 years and was made into a hit movie and sequel.
By the 1980s, Hanna-Barbera had taken cartoon characters The Smurfs and developed a US TV show for them. That programme still airs in some 30 countries.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Barbera penned his autobiography, My Life In 'Toons, in 1994, detailing his rise to cartoon legend from a childhood in New York City, where he was born on March 24, 1911. He is survived by his wife and three children from a previous marriage.
<SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P class=StoryText align=justify>Legendary Hollywood animator Joseph Barbera, whose character creations include Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Yogi Bear, Tom & Jerry and Scooby-Doo, died on Monday at age 95, the Warner Bros film studio said in a statement.
He died at his home in the Los Angeles-area community of Studio City with his wife Sheila by his side, Warner Bros said. No further details were disclosed.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Barbera founded Hanna-Barbera Studios with his partner William Hanna nearly 50 years ago, and it grew to become one of Hollywood's best known animation companies, producing hundreds of cartoons and winning numerous awards.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Barbera met Hanna, who died in 2001 at age 90, at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film studio in 1937 and first worked together on the cartoon, Puss Gets The Boot, which led to the creation of famous cat and mouse friends, Tom and Jerry.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The animation creators won wide acclaim in 1945 when they were responsible for getting Tom and Jerry to dance on movie screens alongside the very real Gene Kelly in Anchors Aweigh. Tom And Jerry Tales, which continues to be broadcast, shows the pair up to the same chases and tricks.
The creators left MGM in the 1950s when the studio shut down its cartoon unit believing TV would eventually end animation on movie screens.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Spurred by the challenge of creating cartoons for the new medium, the pair formed Hanna-Barbera Studios in 1957, where over the years they created characters like the stone age Flintstone family, the space age Jetson clan, the ghost-hunting dog Scooby-Doo and the goofy Yogi Bear.
The Flintstones became the first animated TV series to air on prime time US television, the first to feature animated human characters and the first to run beyond the standard six or seven-minute format. Its cartoons still air in over 80 countries around the world.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In the 1970s, the pair landed a hit with the Scooby-Doo character, a lovable Great Dane who worked with teenage ghost hunters to solve mysteries in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? It was produced for 17 years and was made into a hit movie and sequel.
By the 1980s, Hanna-Barbera had taken cartoon characters The Smurfs and developed a US TV show for them. That programme still airs in some 30 countries.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Barbera penned his autobiography, My Life In 'Toons, in 1994, detailing his rise to cartoon legend from a childhood in New York City, where he was born on March 24, 1911. He is survived by his wife and three children from a previous marriage.
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