Scooby-Doo animator dead at 81

After losing co-founder Joseph Barbera and animator Ed Benedict, Hanna Barbera is again saying good-bye to yet another legend. Iwao Takamoto, who designed Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and the rest of the Mysteries Inc. gang, passed away yesterday at the age of 81.

While Ed Benedict is credited with designing the original Flintstones characters, Takamoto designed the Great Gazoo. He also created Muttley, the wheezing dog featured on such shows as Laff-A-Lympics, Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines and Wacky Races; and Astro, the Jetson's dog who, oddly enough, sounded not unlike Scooby-Doo (both were voiced by Don Messick). His other credits at Hanna Barbera include Josie and the Pussycats, Jabberjaw and many, many others.

Takamoto spent part of World War II in an internment camp where he was taught illustration by other Japanese-Americans. He worked at Disney Studios as an apprentice after the war on such films as Cinderella, 101 Dalmatians, Lady and the Tramp and Peter Pan. He later left Disney to work at Hanna Barbera. Takamoto's most recent contributions to animation were as a character designer for Krypto the Superdog, and he also worked on the Tom and Jerry short The Karateguard in 2005.

A 1999 interview with Takamoto can be read here.