Iwao Takamoto

Iwao Takamoto
高本 厳夫
Takamoto in 2005
Born(1925-04-29)April 29, 1925
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
DiedJanuary 8, 2007(2007-01-08) (aged 81)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeMount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
OccupationsAnimator, television producer, film director, storyboard artist, writer
Employers
Spouses
(m. 1957; div. 1959)
Barbara Farber
(m. 1964)
Children1

Iwao Takamoto (Japanese: 高本 厳夫, Hepburn: Takamoto Iwao; April 29, 1925 – January 8, 2007) was an American animator, character designer, television producer, and film director. After his family had been sent to the California internment camps in the early 1940s, Takamoto learned to draw, presented his sketchbook to Walt Disney Animation Studios and was hired on the spot.

Noted for his career as a production and character designer for Disney, on films including Cinderella (1950), Lady and the Tramp (1955), and Sleeping Beauty (1959), Takamoto subsequently moved to Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he designed a great majority of the characters, notably the characters Scooby-Doo and Astro. He eventually became a director and producer.