William Hanna
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William Hanna | |
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| Born | July 14, 1910 |
| Died | March 22, 2001 (aged 90) |
William Denby "Bill" Hanna (July 14, 1910 – March 22, 2001) was an American animator, director, producer, cartoon artist, and co-founder, together with Joseph Barbera, of Hanna-Barbera. The studio produced well-known cartoons such as The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo as well as the musical film, Charlotte's Web.
Biography
William Denby Hanna (1910-2001)
American animator and producer born in Melrose, New Mexico, on July 14, 1910. William Hanna studied to become a structural engineer but had to drop out of college with the onset of the Depression. A talent for drawing led him to join the Harman-Ising animation studio in 1930; there he worked for seven years in the story and layout departments.
When the MGM animation unit was established in 1937, Hanna became one of its first staff members and directed many of the Captain and the Kids cartons in 1938-39, together with William Allen. In 1938 he and Joe Barbera were teamed for the first time on a short titled Gallopin' Gals; the association became permanent the next year when the duo directed the first of the Tom and Jerry cartons, "Puss Gets the Boot." Over the next 18 years Hanna and Barbera directed more than 200 Tom and Jerry shorts, winning great popularity and a number of Oscars along the way. For a brief period following Fred Quimby's retirement in 1956, they were also in charge of production.
In 1957 Hanna and Barbera struck out on their own and formed Hanna-Barbera Productions with a view to producing cartoon films for television as well as for theatrical release. The success of their early television series, Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear, helped establish them in the field, but their theatrical venture, Loopy de Loop, fizzled out. In the early 1960s the phenomenal success of The Flintstones boosted the studio to the top of the TV cartoon field; Hanna-Barbera Productions was sold to Taft Communications in 1966 for a reported $26 million, with Hanna and Barbera remaining at the head of the company.
Hanna-Barbera has been churning out animation material at an increasing pace as television has provided a greater and greater market for their product. Among the more than 100 cartoon series and specials produced by Hanna-Barbera in the 20 years of the studio's existence, there are very few that are commendable or even watch able. Some of their series titles are Atom Ant, Magilla Gorilla, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Quickdraw McGraw, Ruff and Ready, Auggie Doggie and Doggie Daddy (an imitation of the earlier Spike and Tyke MGM cartoons), Dastardly and Mutley and Birdman; the specials include Alice in Wonderland, Jak and the Beanstalk, Cyrano de Bergerac and Charlotte's Web.
Career
He attended Compton High School from 1925 through 1928.
Hanna started his career in 1932 when he learned that Leon Schlesinger Productions, producers of animated cartoons for Warner Bros., were hiring staff. He gained his employment without any formal training and soon became head of their Ink and Paint Department. When producer-directors Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising left Schlesinger and Warners in 1933 to become independent and produce cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Hanna was one of the employees who followed them.
In 1936, Hanna directed his first cartoon, To Spring, one of the Harman-Ising Happy Harmonies series entries. In 1937, MGM made a business decision to stop outsourcing to Harman-Ising and bring production in-house. Hanna was among those hired away from Harman-Ising, and he became a senior director on MGM's Captain and the Kids series. The same year, they hired storyman Joseph Barbera from Terrytoons, and in 1939 the two began what was to be a winning partnership as co-directors.
The first cartoon directed by Hanna and Barbera together was Puss Gets the Boot, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best (Cartoon) Short Subject and introduced their most famous creation from this period, the cat and mouse duo Tom and Jerry. Hanna supplied all the screams and yelps of Tom in the shorts without credit. 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."
Hanna and Barbera's 17-year partnership on the Tom & Jerry series resulted in 7 Academy Awards for Best (Cartoon) Short Subject, and 14 total nominations, more than any other character-based theatrical animated series. Hanna and Barbera were placed in charge of MGM's animation division in late 1955; this was short-lived, as MGM closed the division in 1957.
From here, Hanna 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 H-B Enterprises, soon changed to Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Hanna-Barbera Productions became by the late-1960s the most successful television animation studio in the business, producing hit programs such as The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! by the end of the decade.
Hanna-Barbera had been a subsidiary of Taft Broadcasting (later Great American Communications) since 1967. The studio thrived until 1991, when it was sold to Turner Broadcasting. Hanna and Barbera stayed on as advisors and periodically worked on new Hanna-Barbera shows, including the What-a-Cartoon! series.
Death
Hanna died of throat cancer on March 22, 2001 at the age of 90 in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. He is buried in Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest, California.
References
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(hanna) will become a Fashion Designer or a Doctor.