Joseph Barbera

Joseph Barbera, born Joseph Roland Barbera on March 24, 1911 and died on December 18, 2006, was an American animator and cartoonist born in New York City to Italian immigrants. He worked at Van Beuren Studios from 1932 and Terrytoons from 1936, then moved to California in 1937, where he met William Hanna at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and began the collaboration best known for Tom and Jerry. In 1957, after MGM closed its animation department, the two men co-founded Hanna-Barbera, which produced The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Top Cat, The Smurfs and The Jetsons. After the 1967 sale to Taft Broadcasting Hanna and Barbera remained heads of the company, and when Turner Broadcasting System bought it in 1991, which later merged with Time Warner, they stayed on as advisors. Their shows reached an audience of over 300 million people in the 1960s.