William Hanna facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
William Hanna
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Hanna in 1977
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| Born |
William Denby Hanna
July 14, 1910 Melrose, New Mexico Territory, U.S.
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| Died | March 22, 2001 (aged 90) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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| Resting place | Ascension Cemetery, Lake Forest, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Bill Hanna |
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| Years active | 1930–2001 |
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Notable work
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| Spouse(s) |
Violet Wogatzke
(m. 1936) |
| Children | 2 |
William Denby Hanna (born July 14, 1910 – died March 22, 2001) was a famous American animator and cartoonist. He helped create many cartoons we still love today. He is most famous for co-creating Tom and Jerry and for being the voice actor for these two characters. William Hanna also started the well-known animation studio, Hanna-Barbera, with his partner Joseph Barbera.
Hanna began working at an animation studio called Harman and Ising in 1930. He quickly became very skilled at making cartoons. In 1937, while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), he met Joseph Barbera. Together, in 1957, they started Hanna-Barbera. This studio became super successful, creating popular shows like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo, and Yogi Bear. Their cartoons were watched by over 300 million people worldwide in the 1960s and were translated into more than 28 languages!
Tom and Jerry cartoons won seven Academy Awards, which are very important film awards. Hanna and Barbera also won eight Emmy Awards for their TV shows. Their cartoon characters became famous all over the world and appeared in movies, books, and toys.
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Early Life and Interests
William Hanna was born on July 14, 1910, in Melrose, New Mexico. He was one of seven children. His family moved often because his father worked on railroads and water systems. This meant William lived in many different places, like Baker City, Oregon, and San Pedro, California.
When he was 12, living in Watts, California, he joined the Boy Scouts. He loved the outdoors and became an Eagle Scout, which is the highest rank in Scouting. He stayed involved with the Boy Scouts his whole life and even received a special award in 1985. Hanna also enjoyed playing the saxophone in a dance band and singing in a barbershop quartet. He studied engineering in college but had to leave because of the Great Depression.
On August 7, 1936, William Hanna married Violet Blanch Wogatzke. They were married for over 64 years and had two children, David and Bonnie.
Starting His Cartoon Career
After leaving college, Hanna worked different jobs, including building the Pantages Theatre. He then found a job at Pacific Title and Art, which made title cards for movies. There, his talent for drawing became clear.
In 1930, he joined an animation studio called Harman and Ising. This studio created the famous Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons. Even without special training, Hanna quickly became the head of the ink and paint department. He also wrote songs for cartoons! In 1933, he followed Harman and Ising when they started making cartoons for MGM.
In 1936, Hanna got to direct his first cartoon, To Spring. The next year, MGM started its own cartoon studio, and Hanna was one of the first people they hired. He worked on the Captain and the Kids series. This is where he met Joseph Barbera. They quickly realized they worked well together and formed a partnership that lasted over 60 years!
The Success of Tom and Jerry
In 1940, Hanna and Barbera directed a cartoon called Puss Gets the Boot. It was nominated for an Academy Award! Even though their boss wasn't sure about more cat and mouse cartoons, Hanna and Barbera kept working on the idea. They wanted two characters with lots of action and conflict, and a cat chasing a mouse seemed perfect.
This led to their most famous creation: Tom and Jerry. The series showed Jerry, a clever mouse, always outsmarting his enemy, Tom. The first Tom and Jerry cartoon was The Midnight Snack in 1941. For the next 17 years, Hanna and Barbera focused almost entirely on Tom and Jerry, making over 114 popular cartoon shorts. They also made training films during World War II.
Tom and Jerry cartoons mostly used action instead of talking. They won their first Academy Award in 1943 for The Yankee Doodle Mouse. In total, Tom and Jerry was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won 7! No other cartoon series with the same characters has won more awards. Tom and Jerry even appeared in live-action movies like Anchors Aweigh with Gene Kelly.
In 1957, MGM decided to stop making new cartoons because re-releasing old ones was cheaper. Hanna and Barbera were surprised because Tom and Jerry was so successful.
Starting Hanna-Barbera Productions
After leaving MGM, William Hanna teamed up with Joseph Barbera again in 1957 to create cartoons for television. They were a great team: Barbera was good at writing jokes and drawing sketches, while Hanna was excellent at timing, story ideas, and finding talented artists. They decided together on big business choices.
Their new company was first called H-B Enterprises, but soon changed to Hanna-Barbera Productions. Their first TV show was The Ruff and Reddy Show, about a dog and a cat. Then came two very popular shows: The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Yogi Bear Show.
In 1960, they learned that half the viewers of Huckleberry Hound were adults! This gave them the idea for The Flintstones. This show was a funny take on a Stone Age family, with stone-age appliances and talking animals. The Flintstones was the first animated show to be a big hit during prime-time TV hours, watched by both kids and adults. Fred Flintstone's famous phrase, "yabba dabba doo" became very well known. The studio later made The Jetsons, a space-age version of The Flintstones.
By the late 1960s, Hanna-Barbera Productions was the most successful TV animation studio. They made over 3,000 animated half-hour TV shows! Some of their more than 100 cartoon series included Atom Ant, Jonny Quest, Josie and the Pussycats, Quick Draw McGraw, and Top Cat. They also created Scooby-Doo (starting in 1969) and The Smurfs (starting in 1981).
To make cartoons for TV, which had smaller budgets than movies, Hanna-Barbera used a technique called limited animation. This meant fewer drawings per cartoon, but it allowed them to keep making shows and provide jobs for many animators. They focused more on character dialogue and clever stories. This new style helped Hanna-Barbera stay in business and became the standard for TV animation, still used in shows like The Simpsons today.
In 1966, Hanna-Barbera Productions was sold to Taft Broadcasting. Hanna and Barbera continued to lead the company until 1991. Later, the company was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, which then joined with Time Warner. Hanna and Barbera continued to advise their old company and even worked on new shows and movies like The Flintstones (1994) and Scooby-Doo (2002).
William Hanna's Legacy
William Hanna passed away on March 22, 2001, at the age of 90. After his death, Cartoon Network aired a special tribute to him. He is buried in Lake Forest, California.
Many of the cartoons Hanna and Barbera created showed strong friendships or partnerships. Think of Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, or the friends in Scooby-Doo. This might have been a reflection of the close working friendship Hanna and Barbera shared for almost 60 years. They balanced each other's strengths very well. Hanna loved the outdoors, while Barbera enjoyed city life, but they rarely argued and respected each other's work.
Hanna is considered one of the greatest animators ever. He and Barbera successfully adapted to the changes in the animation industry when television became popular. Their characters are not just cartoon superstars; they are a beloved part of American culture. Many people see them as the only rivals to Walt Disney in the world of cartoons.
Hanna and Barbera had a huge impact on television animation. Their cartoons often appear on "greatest" lists. Their characters have appeared in movies, books, toys, and more. Their shows were watched by millions worldwide and translated into many languages. Their work is also praised for its music, like in The Cat Concerto and Johann Mouse, which used classical music.
In total, the Hanna-Barbera team won seven Academy Awards and eight Emmy Awards. They also received many other honors, including stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1976 and being inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1994.
William Hanna's voice effects, especially the screams and sounds he made for Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse in the original Tom and Jerry cartoons, have been used again in newer movies and TV shows like Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers (2006) and Tom & Jerry (2021 film).
See also
- Golden age of American animation
- Tom and Jerry filmography
- List of works produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions
