Joe Ruby Cartoonist
BORN MARCH 30, 1933 – DIED AUGUST 26, 2020, AGED 87
ALONG with Ken Spears, Joe Ruby created ScoobyDoo, one of the most enduring cartoon characters and enjoyed by audiences for more than half a century.
Accompanied by teenagers Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne, the talking Great Dane showed he had a knack of finding the clues to solve crimes.
The Frank Sinatra song Strangers In The Night served as the inspiration for the programme title ScoobyDoo, Where are You! Sinatra’s fade out lines
‘ doo- be doo- be- doo’ stuck in the drawers’ heads.
The cartoons were an instant hit with Saturday morning viewers in the United States and were sold throughout the world.
Ruby was concerned it would last only one season, but the latest series, Scooby- Doo and Guess Who? has gone down well with modern audiences after its launch last year. Two films featuring the lovable characters in a variety of scrapes have done well.
Born in Los Angeles, Joe
Ruby joined the US Navy after completing his education, working as a sonar operator during the Korean war.
His love of comics led him to studying art before joining Walt Disney Productions where he drew frames which linked drawings by different animators.
Switching to HannaBarbera he worked alongside Spears on The Flintstones as a film editor.
Top Cat and The Yogi Bear Show were just some of the other shows that he film edited.
Setting up on their own as Ruby- Spears Productions in 1977, they produced Alvin and the Chipmunks, Rambo and Superman in cartoon style.
He divorced his first wife, Sheila Averbach and is survived by his second wife Carole and his four children.