Joseph barbera biography

American animator and cartoonist (1911–2006)

Joseph Roland Barbera (bar-BAIR-ə;Italian:[barˈbɛːra]; March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006) was an American animator and cartoonist, best known as the co-founder of the animation studio Hanna-Barbera.

Born to Italian immigrants in New York City, Barbera joined Van Beuren Studios in 1927 and subsequently Terrytoons in 1936. In 1937, he moved to California, and while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Barbera met William Hanna. The two men began a collaboration that was at first best known for producing Tom and Jerry.

In 1957, after MGM dissolved its animation department, they co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which became the most successful television animation studio in the business, producing programs such as The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, Top Cat, The Smurfs, Huckleberry Hound, and The Jetsons. In 1967, Hanna-Barbera was sold to Taft Broadcasting for $12 million, but Hanna and Barbera remained heads of the company. In 1991, the studio was sold to Turner Broadcasting System, which merged with Time Warner, owners of Warner Bros., in 1996; Hanna and Barbera stayed on as advisors.

Hanna and Barbera directed seven Academy Award films and won eight Emmy Awards. Their cartoon shows have become cultural icons, and their cartoon characters have appeared in other media

Joseph Rowland "Joe" Barbera (24 March 1911 – 18 December 2006) was an American animator and the junior partner in Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Biography[]

Barbera was born on New York City's Lower East Side to an Italian immigrant family. As a student at a Roman Catholic school, Barbera showed a natural talent for drawing, and was assigned to draw simple religious scenes on a chalkboard.

In high school, Barbera also developed his writing and acting talents. After an unrewarding stint processing income tax returns for a bank, Barbera had established a career as a magazine cartoonist. From print cartooning he soon switched to animation. Like his future partner, Barbera's first job in animation was as a cel painter for the Fleischer brothers.

Barbera later worked at the Van Beuren animation studios, an extension of Paul Terry's studio. Shortly afterward, the Van Beuren studio closed, and Barbera got a position with Terry himself. From there, Barbera was hired by MGM's new animation unit, where he started a partnership with William Hanna.

Hanna and Barbera first worked together on "The Captain and the Kids", a series of cartoon shorts based on the popular newspaper comic strip. "The Captain and the Kids" was poorly received, but Hanna and Barbera found greater success with Tom and Jerry. The two would also produce seven Droopy cartoons.

In his final years, Barbera was caricatured in the Johnny Bravo episode "Bravo Dooby Doo" and produced the Tom and Jerry short "The Mansion Cat" for Cartoon Network. He was also the executive producer for Warner Bros. Animation and Warner Bros. Television's What's New Scooby-Doo?, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, The Karate Guard, and Tom and Jerry Tales. In 2006, Barbera died of some natural causes at the age of 95.

In an article "in memoriam" published in the Italian magazine "Il Giornale" on 20 December 2006, journalist Federico Fiecconi reports how, to the question of who he admired most, Joseph Barbera replied: "My grandmother Francesca Calvacca, who arrived in Manhattan from Sciacca, Sicily, in 1898, raised 5 children and helped my mother to raise me and my two brothers. Apart from me, nobody in the family knew how to draw, but my grandmother was endowed with a great sense of humor. Raising a gang of nine Sicilians requires an exaggerated sense of humor, at least to avoid a bloodbath. I like to think I've inherited a bit of her spirit."

At the end of the 1920's he saw his first animated film, "The skeleton dance" by Walt Disney, and his imagination was on fire: he wrote to his hero, and he received a reply where Disney foretold a future visit to Manhattan. But, as Joe Barbera commented, luckily Disney never contacted him again, otherwise he would have dropped everything to join his staff.

In his 20s, Joseph Barbera gave up a safe job in a bank to go west and follow his dream to combine sounds, colors and patterns on the screen, creating a fantasy world. In 1932 he became an animator and writer for the Van Beuren studio, and in 1937 he was working at Metro-Goldwyn- Mayer. In 1938, he met here an Irish youth, William Hanna, just hired by the MGM comics studio, and the two became a perfect couple on the job, Laurel & Hardy style, inventing the stories of the cat Tom and mouse Jerry, and for nearly two decades they worked with

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Joseph Barbera was co-founder of the powerhouse animation studio Hanna-Barbera. He got his start drawing at his Catholic grade school, Holy Innocents, in Brooklyn, where the sisters noted his artistic talents. Eventually he made cartoons and animation his career, landing at Metro Goldwyn Mayer. At MGM he teamed up with William Hanna on the Tom and Jerry series, which was an overnight sensation. Tom and Jerry won a record seven Oscars from a record 14 nominations. When MGM shut down its animation studio, the two partnered to found Hanna-Barbera studios. Through Hanna-Barbera they created some of the most important cartoons of the 20th century, including Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Johnny Quest, The Jetsons, Snagglepuss, Superfriends, The Smurfs, Scooby Do, and many others. Through their groundbreaking work they won many Emmy Awards. But Joseph Barbera considered a series of cartoons on stories from the Bible to be his most important achievement. The series, “The Greatest Adventure,” was released straight to home video from 1985 through 1992. Barbera remained active in Hanna-Barbera until shortly before his death in 2006.