| Iwao Takamoto | |
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Iwao Takamoto |
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| Born | April 29, 1925 Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. |
| Died | January 8, 2007 (aged 81) Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. |
| Occupation | Animator, Television producer, Film director |
| Spouse | Barbara Takamoto |
| Children | Michael Takamoto, Leslie Stern |
Iwao Takamoto (April 29, 1925 – January 8, 2007) was a Japanese-American animator, television producer, and film director. He was most famous as being a production and character designer for Hanna-Barbera Productions shows such as Scooby-Doo.
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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 on April 29, 1925 in Los Angeles, California. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Takamoto's family, like many Japanese Americans, was forced to move 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 1945. Takamoto eventually became an assistant for the legendary Milt Kahl. He worked as an animator on such titles as Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, and One Hundred and One Dalmatians.
Takamoto left Disney in 1961 and joined Hanna-Barbera Productions shortly thereafter, but he and Joseph Barbera were both uncredited sequence directors in The Fox and the Hound. He worked in several positions there, but is arguably best known as a character designer. He was responsible for the original character design of such characters as Scooby-Doo, The Jetsons' dog Astro, and Penelope Pitstop. He worked as a producer at Hanna-Barbera, supervising shows such 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). The inspiration for Scooby-Doo's creation as a Great Dane came from an employee of the Hanna-Barbera company, who bred this dog.[1]
Takamoto was Vice-President of Creative Design at Hanna-Barbera, and was 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.
Takamoto's memoirs were published posthumously in 2009 by University Press of Mississippi under the title Iwao Takamoto: My Life with a Thousand Characters.
He died on January 8, 2007 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles from a heart attack at age 81. Coincidentally, Takomoto died exactly three weeks after Hanna-Barbera co-founder Joseph Barbera. Throughout the week following his death, Adult Swim put up a bumper reading "Iwao Takamoto [1925-2007]". He was buried at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles in Gardens of Blessing, Section 3, Lot 1390, Space 3.[1][2] There was a memorial added to the end of a Scooby-Doo film: 'Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!'.