William Hanna

William Denby Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator, voice actor, and musician. Hanna and Joseph Barbera co-created Tom and Jerry and founded the animation studio and production company Hanna-Barbera, with Hanna providing the vocal effects for Tom and Jerrys title characters.

Hanna joined the Harman and Ising animation studio in 1930 and steadily gained skill and prominence while working on cartoons such as Captain and the Kids. In 1937, while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hanna met Barbera and formed a working relationship. In 1957, they co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which became the most successful television animation studio in the business, creating or producing programs such as The Flintstones, The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, The Smurfs, and Yogi Bear. In 1967, Hanna-Barbera was sold to Taft Broadcasting for $12 million (equivalent to about $ million today) but Hanna and Barbera remained heads of the company until 1991. At that time, the studio was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, which in turn was merged with Time Warner in 1996; Hanna and Barbera stayed on as advisors.

Tom and Jerry won seven Academy Awards, while Hanna and Barbera were nominated for two others and won eight Emmy Awards. Their cartoons have become cultural icons, and their cartoon characters have appeared in other media such as films, books, and toys. Hanna-Barbera's shows had a worldwide audience of over 300 million people in their 1960s heyday and have been translated into more than 28 languages.

Early and personal life

Hanna was born to William John and Avice Joyce (née Denby) Hanna on July 14, 1910, in Melrose, New Mexico Territory. He was the third of seven children. Hanna described his family as "a red-blooded, Irish-American family". The family moved to Logan, Utah, before moving to San Pedro, California, in 1917. During the next two years they moved several times before eventually settling in Watts, California, in 1919. His passion for music carried over into his career; he helped write songs for his cartoons, including the theme for The Flintstones. Hanna became an Eagle Scout as a youth and remained active in Scouting throughout his life. As an adult, he served as a Scoutmaster and was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America with their Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in 1985. Despite his numerous career-related awards, Hanna was most proud of this Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. Hanna studied both journalism and structural engineering at Compton City College, but had to drop out of college with the onset of the Great Depression.

On August 7, 1936, Hanna married Violet Blanch Wogatzke, and they had a marriage lasting over 64 years, until his death. The marriage produced two children, In 1996, Hanna, with assistance from Los Angeles writer Tom Ito, published his autobiography—Joe Barbera had published his own two years earlier. While working there, Hanna's talent for drawing became evident, and in 1930 he joined the Harman and Ising animation studio, which had created the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series.

Despite a lack of formal training, Hanna soon became head of their ink and paint department. Besides inking and painting, Hanna also wrote songs and lyrics.

Hanna was given the opportunity to direct his first cartoon in 1936; the result was To Spring, part of the Harman-Ising Happy Harmonies series.

Tom and Jerry

In 1940, Hanna and Barbera jointly directed Puss Gets the Boot, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best (Cartoon) Short Subject. The studio wanted a diversified cartoon portfolio, so despite the success of Puss Gets the Boot, Hanna and Barbera's supervisor, Fred Quimby, did not want to produce more cat and mouse cartoons. During World War II they also made animated training films. The series won its first Academy Award for the 11th short, The Yankee Doodle Mouse (1943)—a war-time adventure. No other character-based theatrical animated series has won more awards, nor has any other series featuring the same characters. Tom and Jerry also made guest appearances in several of MGM's live-action films, including Anchors Aweigh (1945) and Invitation to the Dance (1956) with Gene Kelly, and Dangerous When Wet (1953) with Esther Williams.

Quimby accepted each Academy Award for Tom and Jerry without inviting Hanna and Barbera onstage. The cartoons were also released with Quimby listed as the sole producer, following the same practice for which he had condemned Ising. As the studio began to lose more revenue due to television, who had created the series Crusader Rabbit. Their partnership soon ended, and in 1957 Hanna reteamed with Joseph Barbera to produce cartoons for television and theatrical release.

A parody of The Honeymooners, the new show followed a typical Stone Age family with home appliances, talking animals, and celebrity guests. With an audience of both children and adults, The Flintstones became the first animated prime-time show to be a hit. Fred Flintstone's signature exclamation "yabba dabba doo" soon entered everyday usage, and the show boosted the studio to the top of the TV cartoon field. though it has been erroneously reported that Sgt. Bilko was the basis for Yogi Bear. Television programs had lower budgets than theatrical animation, and this economic reality caused many animation studios to go out of business in the 1950s and 1960s, putting many people in the industry out of work. The new style did not limit the success of their animated shows, enabling Hanna–Barbera to stay in business, providing employment to many who would otherwise have been out of work. At that point, the company was sold to the Turner Broadcasting System for an estimated , which itself merged with Time Warner, owners of Warner Bros., in 1996.

Death

Hanna died of esophageal cancer at his home in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on March 22, 2001, at the age of 90.

Legacy

Most of the cartoons Hanna and Barbera created revolved around close friendship or partnership; this theme is evident with Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, Ruff and Reddy, The Jetsons family, and the friends in Scooby-Doo. These may have been a reflection of the close business friendship and partnership that Hanna and Barbera shared for almost 60 years. Leonard Maltin says the Hanna–Barbera team "[may] hold a record for producing consistently superior cartoons using the same characters year after year—without a break or change in routine. Their characters are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture". They are often considered as Walt Disney's only rivals as cartoonists.

Hanna and Barbera had a lasting impact on television animation. Many of their characters have appeared in film, books, toys, and other media. including the 1960 award for The Huckleberry Hound Show, which was the first Emmy awarded to an animated series.

Hanna's audio of Tom Cat's screams and various vocal effects he provided for the cat and mouse from the original Tom and Jerry cartoons were reused in the 2006 direct-to-video film, Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers, Tom and Jerry Tales (2006–2008 TV series, several season 1 episodes) and The Tom and Jerry Show (2014–2021 TV series) among others. Outside of Tom and Jerry, his screams were modified for the Critters in Critters 2 and Critters 3, and were also used in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only and for the caveman in the video game Prehistorik Man.

References

External links

Warner Brothers official Hanna–Barbera website