Animation legend William Hanna, who with partner Joseph Barbera turned television into their own personal cartoon world, creating such characters as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died on Thursday, a spokesman for Warner Brothers said.
Hanna, co-chairman and cofounder of Hanna Barbera Studios, died at his home in North Hollywood.
He was aged 90.
Hanna and Barbera, who used to produce five five-minute Tom and Jerry film cartoons a year for MGM, were producing up to 11 half-hour shows on TV each week at the height of their fame.
Ultimately they produced 3,000 half-hour shows creating such characters as Huckleberry Hound, Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear, the Jetsons, Atom Ant, Jonny Quest, Quick Draw McGraw, Top Cat, Magilla Gorilla, Pixie and Dixie, Josie and the Pussycats and, of course, Boo Boo, the sidekick and conscience of Yogi Bear. Among their most famous shows was The Flintstones a "modern stone age family" whose head of the house, Fred Flintstone, a character with Jackie Gleason girth and overtones.
Hanna and Barbera met on the lot of MGM in 1937 where they created the Tom and Jerry cartoon series.
Besides Tom and Jerry, they had made film history at MGM by mixing animation and live action sequences in such classic films as Gene Kelly's Anchors Away and Invitation to Dance. They also created a similar sequence for Esther Williams in Dangerous When Wet.
They formed their own animation company Hanna-Barbera in 1957 after they were told that the animation division at MGM was being shut.
They turned their talents to television and a created a simpler and less expensive form of animation made especially for the small screen.
Sidney Jacobson, a veteran animation editor, said the "limited animation" technique they pioneered essentially was a "speedier animation with less detail in background".
Born in Melrose, New Mexico on July 14th, 1910, Hanna received early training as an engineer.)