TV cartoon writer and artist Tony Benedict, 89, died on Nov. 29. A Marine veteran, Benedict started his career at Disney in 1948 as an in-betweener on such films as Sleeping Beauty; he moved to UPA and worked on Mr. Magoo, and that same year settled in at Hanna-Barbera, where he helped to create The Flintstones. Benedict worked as a writer—and sometimes artist—on such Baby Boomer classics as The Jetsons, Top Cat, Huckleberry Hound, Magilla Gorilla, Secret Squirrel, and Lippy the Lion and Hardy-Har-Har (did you know Hardy’s voice was based on ZaSu Pitts?). He also wrote such forgotten (at least by me) shows as Hokey Wolf, Breezly and Sneezly, Richochet Rabbit and Droop-a-Long, Gold Diggin’ Woodpecker, Touché Turtle and Dum Dum, and Blast-Off Buzzard (I would love to have been at the production meetings for those!). Benedict’s coworker Mark Evanier posted that “He was just one of those guys who worked everywhere in town and was liked by everyone. Those of us who got to know him found him to be a talented and very clever gentleman.”
