Hasn't been a good couple of weeks for those who made the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. First, Joe Barbera leaves us and now, this morning, Iwao Takamoto has died at the age of 81. And come to think of it, Ed Benedict — who was responsible for the design of so many early H-B shows, died last August. (And Alex Toth, who was the main designer of their adventure shows, passed away last May.)
In a sense, Iwao took Ed's place at H-B. Iwao (pronounced "E-whoa") was born in 1925 in Los Angeles to parents who had immigrated from Japan. His family spent much of World War II in an internment camp, an experience that he only spoke about later on rare occasions. When he did, he admitted one — and only one — upside: It was in that camp that he met some men who were professional art directors and they encouraged him in his drawing. Around 1945, not long after his family's release and aided by the encouragement of the men he'd met in the camp, he easily secured employment at the Disney Studios. There, he worked primarily as an assistant animator to Milt Kahl on all the great animated features of the day, including Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. He is often credited with the main design of Lady in Lady and the Tramp.
Some time between 1960 and 1962 — accounts differ — he left Disney and joined Hanna-Barbera, where he quickly became one of their key designers. He had at least a supervisory role, if not an active design responsibility, for most of their shows from the mid-sixties on. His most notable credit came with the designs he did for the characters in Scooby Doo, perhaps the most popular cartoon series ever created for daytime television. He held various titles at the studio that all fell under the general heading of "Art Director."
Iwao was a quiet, soft-spoken man who was generally well-respected in the business, both as an artist and as a gentleman. I had the honor of working with him on a few projects and I found him to be very serious about his work and motivated by a great love of the form. It's sad that even before we finish saying goodbye to Joe, we have to lose yet another fine man who was very much a part of that studio.