Joe Barbera — creator alongside Bill Hanna of beloved cartoon characters like Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones — has died. A Warner Bros. spokesman says Barbera died of natural causes at age 95 at his home with his wife Sheila at his side.

Hanna and Barbera first teamed cat and mouse in the short "Puss Gets the Boot." It earned an Academy Award nomination, and MGM let the pair keep experimenting until the full-fledged Tom and Jerry characters eventually were born.

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THE CATALOGUE

Hanna and Barbera first teamed up while working at MGM in the 1930s, then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1950s with a witty series of animated TV comedies — including "The Flintstones," "The Jetsons," "Yogi Bear," "Scooby-Doo" and "Huckleberry Hound and Friends." The Tom and Jerry cartoons won seven Academy Awards, more than any other series with the same characters.

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BARBERA'S SKILLS

Their strengths melded perfectly, critic Leonard Maltin wrote in his book "Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons." Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing. Hanna died in 2001.

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AFTER MGM

After MGM folded its animation department in the mid-1950s, Hanna and Barbera were forced to go into business for themselves. With television's sharply lower budgets, their new cartoons put more stress on verbal wit rather than the detailed — and expensive — action featured in theatrical cartoon.

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