Iwao Takamoto
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Iwao Takamoto (born c. 1925 in Los Angeles, California) is a Japanese American animator, television producer, and film director. He is most famous as being a production designer for Hanna-Barbera Productions.
Takamoto's father emigrated from Hiroshima to the United States for his health. He returned to Japan only once, to marry his wife. Takamoto was born later in Los Angeles. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Takamoto's family, like many Japanese-Americans, was sent to an internment camp. They spent the rest of World War II in the Manzanar internment camp. It was there that Takamoto received basic illustration training from a couple of friendly co-internees.
Takamoto first entered the cartoon world after the end of the war. He was hired as an assistant animator by Walt Disney Studios in 1947, where he worked as an assistant for the legendary Milt Kahl. He worked as an animator on such titles as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Lady and the Tramp.
Takamoto left Disney in 1961 and joined Hanna-Barbera Productions shortly after. He worked in several positions there, but is arguably best known as a character designer. He is responsible for the original character design of such characters as Scooby Doo, The Jetsons' dog Astro, and Penelope Pitstop. He has worked as a producer at Hanna-Barbera, supervising shows such as The Addams Family, Hong Kong Phooey, and Jabberjaw. He has directed several feature length animated films, including Charlotte's Web (1973) and Jetsons: The Movie (1990).
Takamoto is now Vice-President of Creative Design at Hanna-Barbera, and is responsible for overseeing H-B's many product related merchandising. In 2005 he received the Golden Award from the Animation Guild, to honor his more than 50 years of service in the animation field.
