‘Scooby-Doo’ Animator Dies at 81
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Iwao Takamoto, the animator who created Scooby-Doo and directed “Charlotte’s Web,” died Monday at 81 in Los Angeles.
In a career that spanned more than six decades, Takamoto helped design animated features and television shows for Disney and the Hanna-Barbera animation team. They included “Cinderella,” “Peter Pan,” “Lady and the Tramp,” “101 Dalmatians,” “The Jetsons” and “The Flintstones.”
Takamoto said he created Scooby-Doo after talking with a Great Dane breeder and named him after Frank Sinatra’s final phrase in “Strangers in the Night.”
Takamoto also created other famous cartoon dogs such as Astro from “The Jetsons.”
