Scooby-Doo Creator Animation Artist Iwao Takamoto Dies

Scooby-Doo Creator Animation Artist Iwao Takamoto Dies
Iwao Takamoto, the artist who created the mystery-solving Great Dane, Scooby-Doo, among many other indelible cartoon characters, died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 81.

Mr. Takamoto, who learned his trade in a Japanese - American internment camp, was hired by the Walt Disney Studios on the basis of two dime-store notebooks full of sketches.

He went on to work on animated films like "Lady and the Tramp" and "101 Dalmations."

In 1973, he directed, with Charles A. Nichols, the animated film "Charlotte's Web."

At the Hanna-Barbera studio, Mr. Takamoto spent four decades creating television cartoons.

Besides "Scooby-Doo," he created the parasol-waving, sports car-driving Penelope Pitstop, as well as the Jetsons' family dog Astro and Atom Ant of "The Secret Squirrel Show."