WILLIAM HANNA OBITUARIES
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Cartoon pioneer William Hanna, co-chairman and co-founder of Hanna-Barbera Studios, died today at his home in North Hollywood. He was 90.
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Hanna was responsible for such famous animation icons as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, the Flintstones and the Jetsons.
The cause of death was not immediately released.
Born in New Mexico in 1910, Hanna formed a partnership with Joseph R. Barbera at the early age of 27 a partnership that would come to define the rest of their careers.
The pair met while working together for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios, and achieved early success with Tom and Jerry, a cartoon about a constantly battling cat and mouse.
Tom and Jerry's first appearance, in Puss Gets the Boot, won the pair an Academy Award nomination for best cartoon short in 1940.
In the next 12 years, the pair's creation would garner them 12 nominations and seven Oscars over the course of more than 100 cartoons.
As the movie-going audience declined, and moved to television, Hanna and Barbera moved with it, creating The Huckleberry Hound Show, the first weekly show composed entirely of original cartoons.
The Huckleberry Hound Show won an Emmy Award in 1958 for outstanding achievement in the field of children's entertainment, the first cartoon ever to receive this honor.
Two years later, the pair launched The Flintstones, the first cartoon sitcom to play in primetime. The Flintstones ran for six years, until 1966.
Similar success followed, as the pair went on to help the creation of many of the most recognizable cartoons over the past four decades, like Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo, the Smurfs, and the Jetsons.
Over the years since its creation in 1957, their production company developed more than 150 television series, both cartoon and live-action, as well as numerous specials and feature-length films.
Glimpse at the Man Behind the 'Toons
The pair were adamantly private about their personal lives, but in they revealed bits about themselves in Barbera's 1994 autobiography, My Life in 'Toons, and Hanna's autobiography, A Cast of Friends, published in 1996.
Hanna is said to have had an interest in music, in particular, singing in a barbershop quartet, sailing and the Boy Scouts.
Hanna leaves behind his wife, Violet Blanch Wogatzke, whom he married Aug. 7, 1936, and two children: David William, Bonnie Jean.
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