William Hanna

William Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was one-half of the television cartoon production team called Hanna-Barbera, who produced well-known cartoons such as Yogi Bear, George Jetson, Huckleberry Hound and Fred Flintstone.

Career

Hanna first started his career when he learned that Warner Bros. were hiring staff for an animation division. He gained his employment without any formal training and soon became head of their Ink and Paint Department. By 1936 he had become the director of the animation unit at MGM, after the firm made a business decision to stop outsourcing this work and bring it in-house. They soon hired Joseph Barbera as another animator and the two formed a winning partnership over a period of 20 years. During this period, their most famous cartoon characters were the cat and mouse duo Tom and Jerry, and in fact supplied all the screams and yelps of Tom, though this fact was never credited in the series. Leonard Maltin says that "Barbera's strength was in gags and story development, while Hanna saw himself more as a director, with a solid sense of timing; they complemented each other perfectly". In 1956, the two were placed in charge of MGM's animation division, however this was short-lived as MGM closed the division in 1956. From here, William branched out into television, forming the company Shield Productions to partner with animator Jay Ward, who had created the series Crusader Rabbit. This fizzled, and in 1957 he reteamed up with his old partner Joseph Barbera to produce the series The Ruff & Reddy Show, under the company name Hanna-Barbera.

External links

• William Hanna (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0360253/) at the Internet Movie Database
• William Hanna profile from Tom and Jerry Online (http://www.tomandjerryonline.com/hanna.cfm)