William Denby Hanna was an American animator and cartoonist who was the creator of Tom and Jerry as well as the voice actor for the two title characters.
21 Facts About William Hanna
2.
William Hanna joined the Harman and Ising animation studio in 1930 and steadily gained skill and prominence while working on cartoons such as Captain and the Kids.
3.
In 1937, while working at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, William Hanna met Joseph Barbera.
4.
William Hanna was born to William John and Avice Joyce Hanna on July 14,1910, in Melrose, New Mexico Territory.
5.
William Hanna's father was a construction superintendent for railroads as well as water and sewer systems throughout the western regions of America, requiring the family to move frequently.
6.
When William Hanna was three years old, the family moved to Baker City, Oregon, where his father worked on the Balm Creek Dam.
7.
William Hanna attended Compton High School from 1925 through 1928, where he played the saxophone in a dance band.
8.
William Hanna became an Eagle Scout as a youth and remained active in Scouting throughout his life.
9.
William Hanna's interests included sailing and singing in a barbershop quartet.
10.
William Hanna studied both journalism and structural engineering at Compton City College, but had to drop out of college with the onset of the Great Depression.
11.
William Hanna lost that job during the Great Depression and found another at a car wash.
12.
When Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising chose to break with Schlesinger and begin producing cartoons independently for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, William Hanna was one of the employees who followed them.
13.
William Hanna was given the opportunity to direct his first cartoon in 1936; the result was To Spring, part of the Harman-Ising Happy Harmonies series.
14.
William Hanna was among the first people MGM hired away from Harman-Ising to their new cartoon studio.
15.
The series did not do well; consequently, William Hanna was demoted to a story man and the series was canceled.
16.
William Hanna later produced a space-age version of The Flintstones, known as The Jetsons.
17.
William Hanna produced animated specials based on Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Beanstalk, Cyrano de Bergerac, as well as the feature-length film Charlotte's Web.
18.
William Hanna-Barbera was key in the development of limited animation, which allowed television animation to be more cost-effective, but reduced quality.
19.
William Hanna died of esophageal cancer at his home in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California on March 22,2001, at the age of 90.
20.
William Hanna is buried at Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest, California.
21.
William Hanna is considered one of the all-time great animators and on a par with Tex Avery.