Hannah William, an American animator, producer, and director, was born July 14, 1910 in Los Angeles. He was the only son in the family of a railway employee. William was barely three years old, his parents moved with him to Baker City, Oregon, where the head of the family was supposed to supervise the laying of roads on the dam under construction. Then there were a few more moves related to the new place of work. In the end, the family returned to Los Angeles.
A bit of history
At the end of the thirties of the last century, there was a decline in the production of animated films from the Metro-Goldwin-Mayer film studio. Ising Rudolph, the head of the division, tried to find new characters that could compete with Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny.
Salvation came in the person of William Hannah, who at the time was creating several new projects. One of them was a multistory about the cat Jasper and the mouse. Initially, the studio staff coolly accepted the idea of a “cat and mouse”, which looked quite commonplace. But the very first frames of the animated series amazed everyone with the freshness of the plot and the colorfulness of the images.
So the first super project appeared, which was destined to receive seven Oscars and many other prizes. "Jasper" later received the name Tom, and the mouse became known as Jerry.
Music and animation
While studying in high school, William Hannah learned to play the saxophone. Music lessons were useful to him in the future. The animator himself wrote the soundtracks for many films that were created in his studio. Hannah had a sonorous voice and good diction, so voicing cartoons was his prerogative, many of the heroes whom he drew speak with his voice. For some characters, the artist even conveyed traits of his character.
American cartoons have their own specifics, the dialogue between the characters should be clear and verified. Great importance is attached to intonation, timbre, pauses. This is also a kind of art, because its success to a large extent depends on the sound of the film.
Creative Alliance
Throughout his life, William worked closely and was friends with Joseph Barbera, who was also an animation artist and director of animated films. Together, they created the world-famous Hannah Barber Studio. At first there were certain difficulties in organizing the creative process, but gradually friends were able to invite the right specialists and the work began to boil.
The Hanna-Barbera company was formally established in 1944, but the production of animated films only started in full force in 1957. This was due to personnel and technical problems. And until that time, in 1945-46, the TV series “Tom and Jerry” was created at the studio, about a cat and a mouse, which are in a state of permanent struggle and confrontation, but at the same time they cannot live without each other. From morning to night, the cartoon characters rush around the house, the cat chasing the mouse, as it should be, if you turn to the classics.
The series "Tom and Jerry" immediately fell in love with millions of viewers, ten-minute cartoons were filled with kind and soft humor. Everyone was sorry for Jerry, who at first glance was deeply unhappy, suffering from Tom’s machinations, but if you take a closer look, it turns out that the cat also gets pretty much from a little inventive mouse.
The series was built on plot dynamics, with almost no dialogue. However, both Jerry and Tom were so expressive in their movements and facial expressions that they did not need words. The viewer also understood absolutely everything, the animators tried to create episodes simple and intelligible.
Work on TV
In the early fifties, the film company Metro-Godwin-Mayer, which then worked for William Hannah and Joseph Barbera, began to work closely with cable television. However, the animation studio did not fit into the structure and the artists decided to budge from MGM and start their own business.
New direction
At one point, William Hannah felt an interest in his films from an adult audience. He consulted with Barbera and they decided to create a series of comics for adults. So the animated series "The Flintstones" appeared.
The four heroes were immediately identified, Fred Flintstone, his wife Wilma and Barney Rabble with his wife Betty. They all live in the small town of Bedrock. Fred works at a construction site as an excavator driver (a huge dinosaur), Barney does nothing. Their wives are housewives.
There is a bowling alley in the city, Fred is a regular at the game club, Barney is also trying to achieve some results in the game. Usually they both leave for the whole evening and chase balls, which causes resentment from their wives.
Scooby-Doo and other projects
In the sixties of the last century, William Hannah, together with Joseph Barbera, created a number of animated series, which are considered to be early. These are such projects as “Yoga Bear”, “Johnny Quest”, “Jetsons”, “Secret Agent Squirrel Show”, “Top Kat”, “Space Ghost”, “Fantastic Four”, “Crazy Races” and others.
American cartoons are difficult to manufacture, so the release of two animated films of average footage per year is considered a good result.
The basis of creativity
Such a fruitful joint work of two talented animators would not have been possible if not for the deep friendships of the artists, which lasted for nearly sixty years. Although it should be noted that each of them had their own interests, as well as their own circle of friends. Joseph Barbera preferred to revolve among Hollywood celebrities, loved beaches, drinks and good food, and William Hannah spent his free time in the company of animated cartoonists and adored nature.
But this is on weekends and in the evenings, and on ordinary days, friends met in the studio at eight in the morning and worked until late in the evening. William Hannah, whose films are somehow connected with the work of Joseph Barbera, once and for all ordered at the beginning of each cartoon to indicate next to two names William Hanna & Joseph Barbera. In the US cinema, such "little things" are given great importance. American cartoons are also film products that require delicate handling so that no one's interests are hurt.
Awards
The Hannah-Barbera Tandem has won eight Emmys, seven Prizes from the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and several Golden Globes. However, the most significant prizes were awarded to artists for the creation of the series "Tom and Jerry", these were the Oscars. In total, William and Joseph received seven gold statuettes and six Oscar nominations. This is still considered a record that no one has yet been able to overcome.
In 1976, the Hannah Barbera duet was honored with a star on the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. In 2006, in the hall of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, on one of the walls were placed bas-reliefs depicting legendary animated artists and popular characters from their cartoons. On the walls, it seemed like Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones, the Jetsons came to life.
Personal life
In August 1936, William Hannah married his longtime acquaintance named Violet, they lived together for about sixty-four years. The couple had two children and seven grandchildren. In 1996, an autobiography of the artist was published, which was helped by the writer Tom Ito.
William Hannah passed away on March 22, 2001 from throat cancer in his home in North Hollywood. After his death, a short clip was broadcast with the text "We Will Miss You." Later it became a memorable tradition, in 2002 Chuck Jones and Joseph Barber were held in this way in 2006. On the day of the funeral, a memorial meeting was also held on the Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, by the stars of Hannah and Barber.
All of the company’s assets were inherited by Cartoon Network, which today continues the great work begun once by two talented animator artists at the Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer movie studio.
Hannah William was buried in Ascension Cemetery in Lake Forest, near Los Angeles.