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Tom and Jerry creator dead

— Photo: AP

Joseph Barbera poses with famed Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters in this file picture.

LOS ANGELES: Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, has died, a Warner Brothers spokesman said. He was 95.

Mr. Barbera died on Monday at his home, with his wife Sheila at his side, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said. Mr. Barbera's longtime collaborator, Bill Hanna, died in 2001. The team first found success creating the highly successful Tom and Jerry cartoons. ``When we started, people said, `Cat and mouse? That's old stuff ','' Mr. Barbera recalled in a 1993 interview. ``But I felt that in any country you wouldn't need dialogue to understand the plot. All you needed was a cat and mouse, and everybody knew what was going to happen.''

In the decades since, Hanna-Barbera entertained generations of children, filling movie and TV screens with such series as ``Tom and Jerry,'' ``The Flintstones,'' ``Yogi Bear,'' ``Huckleberry Hound and Friends,'' ``Top Cat,'' ``Scooby-Doo,'' ``Johnny Quest,'' ``The Jetsons'' and ``Animal Follies.''

The ``Tom and Jerry'' cartoons won seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.

Jerry's dance with Gene Kelly in ``Anchors Aweigh'' has become a screen classic, and Fred Flintstone's ``yabba dabba doo'' and Yogi's ``smarter than the average bear'' became part of the language. — AP

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