Dead Celebrity Alert

Cartoonist Ted Key, whose comic strip “Hazel” about a bossy maid went from magazine page to TV screen, has died. He was 95.

He died Saturday at his home in the Philadelphia suburb of Tredyffrin Township after a 1 1/2-year battle with cancer, his son Peter Key said Monday.

“Hazel” was a popular feature in The Saturday Evening Post from the time it debuted in 1943. It evolved into a prime-time series in 1961 that starred Shirley Booth and ran for four years on NBC and one year on CBS.

Key also created the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman for producer Jay Ward. The time-traveling dog/scientist and his boy made their TV debuts in 1959 in segments on the animated show “Rocky and His Friends.” … Read full obituary

Ollie Johnston, the last of the “Nine Old Men” who animated “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Fantasia,” “Bambi” and other classic Walt Disney films, died Monday. He was 95.

Johnston died of natural causes at a long-term care facility in Sequim, Washington, Walt Disney Studios Vice President Howard Green said Tuesday. …

Walt Disney lightheartedly dubbed his team of crack animators his “Nine Old Men,” borrowing the phrase from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s description of the U.S. Supreme Court’s members…

Perhaps the two most accomplished of the nine were Johnston and his close friend Frank Thomas, who died in 2004 at age 92. … Read full obituary

Comic-strip publisher who championed Hergé and made Tintin a household name worldwide

Across Europe, the aftermath of the Second World War saw elation replaced by frustration as austerity measures continued to bite. For youngsters, in particular, there was little entertainment to be had, something that the Belgian businessman Raymond Leblanc saw as a social challenge and a commercial opportunity. The outcome was the birth of one of the powerhouses of comic-strip publishing, and the establishment internationally of Tintin as a household name. … Read full obituary

Steve Gerber, the comic book writer and creator whose signature character was the alienated, cigar-chomping Howard the Duck, has died. He was 60. Gerber, who also co-created Marvel’s “Omega the Unknown” and created the 1980s animated series “Thundarr the Barbarian,” suffered from pulmonary fibrosis.

He died Sunday in a Las Vegas hospital from complications related to the disease, said Mary Skrenes, a friend and writing partner on “Omega” and other comics.

The “Howard the Duck” series became a fast hit after its January 1976 debut on Marvel and remains a cult favorite. Its lead, a disgruntled duck from another universe with a bombshell sidekick named Beverly “Thunder-Thighs” Switzler, was hailed as both smart and subversive.

The adjectives could be applied to Gerber, Skrenes said.

“Howard was his voice. Steve was able to do social commentary and sort of sneak it up on you…” Read full obituary

Doug Marlette, the North Carolina-born cartoonist who won a Pulitzer Prize and created the popular strip ”Kudzu,” was killed in a car accident Tuesday morning in Mississippi, authorities said. He was 57.

Marlette, who joined the Tulsa (Okla.) World last year, was the passenger in the car, which struck a tree after skidding on a rain-slicked road, said John Garrison, the coroner in Mississippi’s Marshall County. …

Marlette’s editorial cartoons and his strip, ”Kudzu,” are syndicated worldwide. The ”Kudzu” strip deals humorously with rural Southern life, featuring characters such as the Rev. Will B. Dunn.

Born in Greensboro, Marlette began drawing political cartoons for The Charlotte Observer in 1972.

He won the Pulitzer in 1988 for his editorial cartooning in both Charlotte and at the Atlanta Constitution, which he had joined the year before. … Read full obituary

Brant Parker, whose encouragement of Endicott native Johnny Hart led to the creation of Hart’s comic strip “B.C.” and then to their collaboration on “The Wizard of Id,” died on Sunday in Lynchburg, Va. — eight days after Hart, 76, died in Nineveh. Parker’s death was announced by Creators Syndicate, which distributes both comic strips.

Parker, 86, was an editorial cartoonist for The Evening Press in Binghamton in 1949 when he met Hart, then a senior at Union-Endicott High School. The two had a mutual interest in cartooning. …

Hart’s widow called Parker “Johnny’s mentor.” …

Hart’s strip went into syndication in 1958 and “The Wizard of Id” followed in 1964. …

Parker, a native of Los Angeles, began his career as an artist at Walt Disney Productions. … Read full obituary

Related:
“B.C.” cartoonist Johnny Hart, 76

Cartoonist Johnny Hart, whose award-winning “B.C.” comic strip appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers worldwide, died at his home on Saturday. He was 76.

“He had a stroke,” Hart’s wife, Bobby, said on Sunday. “He died at his storyboard.”

“B.C.,” populated by prehistoric cavemen and dinosaurs, was launched in 1958 and eventually appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers with an audience of 100 million, according to Creators Syndicate, Inc., which distributes it. … Read full obituary

Iwao Takamoto, the animator who created the cartoon canine Scooby-Doo as well as characters on such shows as “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons,” died Monday after suffering a massive coronary, a spokesman said. He was 81.

Takamoto died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for respiratory problems, said Gary Miereanu, a spokesman for Warner Bros. Animation.

Takamoto designed Scooby-Doo, his equally famished and cowardly master Shaggy, and their pals Velma, Daphne and Fred in the late 1960s while working at the Hanna-Barbera animation studio.

The Great Dane’s name was inspired by an improvised line at the end of Frank Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night.”

He also designed the snickering dog Muttley, who was featured in a number of productions, and Astro, the family dog on “The Jetsons.” For “The Flintstones,” he created the Great Gazoo, a green alien.

Takamoto’s death comes exactly three weeks after that of Hanna-Barbera co-founder Joseph Barbera, who was 95; his business partner William Hanna died in 2001. … Read full obituary

Related:
Animation legend Joe Barbera, 95

Burbank, Calif. (December 18, 2006) — Animation legend Joseph Barbera, co-chairman and co-founder of the world renowned Hanna-Barbera Studios, died today at his Studio City, CA home with wife Sheila at his side. He was 95 years old.

“Joe Barbera truly was an animation and television legend,” said Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. “From the Stone Age to the Space Age and from primetime to Saturday mornings, syndication and cable, the characters he created with his late partner, William Hanna, are not only animated superstars, but also a very beloved part of American pop culture. …”

Born in the Little Italy section of New York City, New York, on March 24, 1911, Barbera and his partner William Hanna (who passed away in March of 2001) created hundreds of beloved cartoon characters during their 60-plus-year partnership. They enjoyed one of the most enduring and successful relationships in entertainment history and together created some of the world’s most recognizable and beloved characters including Tom and Jerry, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo and Yogi Bear among many others. … Read full obituary

Bob Thaves, whose nationally syndicated comic strip “Frank & Ernest” amused newspaper readers for decades with its quirky observations on life, has died of respiratory failure. He was 81.

Thaves died Tuesday at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, California, said his daughter, Sara Thaves.

His long-running strip stars the happy-go-lucky punsters Frank and Ernest, who travel the universe and through time — and sometimes change shape — as they comment on everything from science to world politics.

The strip, which was syndicated in 1972, is distributed to 1,300 newspapers worldwide by Newspaper Enterprise Association and is read by more than 25 million people a day. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES — Henry Corden, the voice of leopard-suited caveman Fred Flintstone’s “yabba dabba doo!” for more than two decades, has died. The Montreal-born actor was 85.

Corden died of emphysema Thursday night at AMI Encino Hospital, his longtime agent Don Pitts said Friday. Corden’s wife of nine years, Angelina, was with him at the time. …

He took over as the lovable loudmouth Fred Flintstone when original voice Allen Reed died in 1977. Reed had been doing Flintstone since the character was created around 1960. … Read full obituary

GLENDALE, Calif. — Artist and writer Joe Grant, who created such Disney characters as the queen-witch character in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and co-wrote “Dumbo,” has died. He was 96.

Grant suffered a heart attack on Friday at his Glendale home while working at his drawing board at his studio, according to a statement released by the Walt Disney Co.

Born in New York, Grant was the son of a newspaper news editor and moved to Los Angeles with his family as a boy. He was hired to draw cartoons and caricatures of famous figures for the Los Angeles Record.

Disney hired Grant in 1933 to work on the animated short “Mickey’s Gala Premiere.” He also was tapped to design the queen-witch character in “Snow White.”

Soon after, Grant headed a department that served as a think thank for future animated projects, which included “Pinocchio” and “Fantasia.” … Read full obituary

PENNGROVE, Calif. Apr 7, 2005 — Dale Messick, whose long-running comic strip “Brenda Starr, Reporter” gave her entry into the male world of the funny pages, has died at age 98.

Messick, whose strip ran in 250 newspapers at its peak in the 1950s, died Tuesday, said her daughter, Starr Rohrman, who had been caring for her mother in Sonoma County.

Messick who jettisoned her given name Dalia to further her career once said Brenda had “everything I didn’t have.” But she charmed acquaintances with spunk and style worthy of her redheaded creation.

Mixing hot copy with high fashion, Brenda plunged from one thrilling adventure to another, sassing her tough-talking editor, Mr. Livwright, and sometimes filing her copy with the only person left in the newsroom, the cleaning woman. … Read full obituary

Pioneering animator Ward Kimball, who helped modernize Mickey Mouse’s look in 1938 and created the character Jiminy Cricket for the Disney classic “Pinocchio,” died on Monday at age 88.

Kimball, a member of Walt Disney’s trusted cadre of cartoon artists known as the “nine old men,” died of natural causes at a hospital in Arcadia, a suburb northeast of Los Angeles, the Walt Disney Co. said in a statement.

During a Disney career that stretched from 1934 until his retirement in 1973, Kimball animated or served as directing animator on such feature classics as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Pinocchio,” “Fantasia,” “Cinderella” and “Alice in Wonderland.”

Two animated shorts he created for Disney — “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Bloom” (1953) and “It’s Tough to be a Bird” (1969) — won Academy Awards. … Read full obituary

Dave Berg, who affectionately spoofed what he called “the human condition” in the pages of Mad magazine for more than 40 years, died on May 16 at his home in Marina del Rey, Calif. He was 81.

Mr. Berg created the magazine’s enduring “The Lighter Side of” comic strip. He began working for Mad as a freelancer in 1956, introducing “The Lighter Side of” in 1961. …

Born in New York City, Mr. Berg attended the Cooper Union School of Art in New York, landing a job inking backgrounds for the newspaper comic strip “The Spirit” when he was 20.

Later, Mr. Berg worked for Stan Lee at Timely Comics (now Marvel Comics)…

His final “Lighter Side” comic strip is scheduled for the September issue of Mad, which observes the magazine’s 50th anniversary. … Read full obituary