Animator and designer IWAO TAKAMOTO,
who developed Scooby-Doo for Hanna-Barbera, died January 8 at the age of
eighty-one.From the January 2007 Peg-Board
Animator and designer IWAO TAKAMOTO,
who developed Scooby-Doo for Hanna-Barbera, died January 8 at the age of
eighty-one.
Takamoto started at Disney in 1945, and eventually became an assistant to Milt Kahl, working on Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians and Lady and the Tramp.
He left Disney in 1961 and joined Hanna-Barbera Productions. Although he was best known as a character designer, he also produced such shows as The Addams Family, Hong Kong Phooey, and Jabberjaw. He directed several feature length animated films, including Charlotte's Web (1973) and Jetsons: The Movie (1990). In 2005 he received the Animation Guild Golden Award.
In April 1979 I found myself visiting relatives in Hollywood, worlds removed from my native Toronto. Almost as an afterthought, I schlepped along my portfolio. I knew no one in the biz, but thought I'd call up Hanna-Barbera and see if someone would look at my work.
I called up Hanna-Barbera and asked for the Creative Director's office, and almost immediately a voice came on the phone: "Hello, Alex, this is Iwao -- welcome to Hollywood!" And he actually gave me directions from my temporary digs to the studio.
Little did I realize that this wasn't just an assistant, that I was actually talking to the man who had designed Scooby Doo! And later that day Iwao and Bob Singer offered me a job on the spot! Thus began my six-year career at Hanna-Barbera.
Twenty-six year later, I worked on a new Tom and Jerry series at Warners, and I would run into Iwao in the halls, a bit frailer but just as friendly, and I'd pop into his office and resume conversations we had started a quarter-century before.
I'm truly saddened by Iwao's passing. In the H-B hierarchy he probably stood on the third rung, just below Bill and Joe. He will be greatly missed, but never forgotten.
-- Alex McCrae
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