Sad to hear of the passing of Tony Benedict, a great animation writer especially in the early days of Hanna-Barbera. Tony never talked much about his early life but we know that after he got out of the Marine Corps, he drove his 1948 Studebaker out to Hollywood to get into the animation business. He started at Disney in 1956 and worked as an in-betweener (assistant animator) on Sleeping Beauty and on some of the animation done for the Disneyland TV show. In 1959, he moved over to the U.P.A. cartoon studio and worked on several Mr. Magoo cartoons.

Then in 1959, he sold a script to Hanna-Barbera for a few show they had going on the air — The Flintstones. They brought him in on staff and he worked as a storyman and sketch artist on that show and pretty much everything they produced after that for several years including The Jetsons, Top Cat, Yakky Doodle, Magilla Gorilla, Secret Squirrel and many more. Later, he worked for other studios (including DePatie-Freleng) and produced and wrote several animated features.

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. He'd been ill for some time and we think he was 88 years old. The animation community has lost a beloved figure indeed.