Joseph Roland Barbera was born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in a family of Italian immigrants. His parents, Vincent and Francesca, owned a barbershop and were from Sicily. Vincent, a farmer from Castelvetrano, and Francesca, from the spa town of Sciacca, had a son named Joseph, who would later become a renowned animator, film director, and television producer.
Joseph's family moved to Flatbush, Brooklyn, when he was just a few months old. He was mostly raised in Flatbush, where his father's gambling addiction led to financial struggles. In 1926, Vincent abandoned his family, and Joseph was taken under the wing of his maternal uncle, Jim Calvacca.
Barbera attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, where he worked as a tailor's delivery boy and excelled in boxing, winning several titles. He graduated in 1928 and started working odd jobs before becoming interested in animation after watching Walt Disney's "The Skeleton Dance" in 1929.
He began his career as a freelance cartoonist, publishing his work in magazines such as Redbook, the Saturday Evening Post, and Collier's. Barbera also took art classes at the Art Students League of New York and the Pratt Institute to improve his drawing skills.
In 1932, he was hired by Fleischer Studios as an inker and colorist, followed by a stint at Van Beuren Studios, where he worked on films such as "Cubby Bear" and "Rainbow Parades". At Van Beuren, he met his future partner, William Hanna, and worked on the Tom and Jerry series.
In 1936, Barbera left Van Beuren to work for Paul Terry's Terrytoons studio, and later for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, where he co-directed "Puss Gets the Boot" with Hanna, introducing the iconic cat-and-mouse duo of Tom and Jerry.
From 1940 to 1957, Barbera and Hanna co-directed 114 Tom and Jerry animated shorts, which became incredibly popular with critics and audiences. However, by the 1950s, production costs were high, and the profitability of the shorts decreased. MGM decided to shut down its animation subsidiary, leaving Barbera unemployed for the first time in decades.
He briefly partnered with Robert D. Buchanan to produce the science fiction series "Colonel Bleep" before reuniting with Hanna to found Hanna-Barbera Productions, their own animation studio. With the decline of theatrical animation, they focused on television animation, producing popular shows such as "The Ruff & Reddy Show", "The Huckleberry Hound Show", and "The Yogi Bear Show".
In 1960, they launched the animated sitcom "The Flintstones", which became a huge success, establishing Hanna-Barbera Productions as the leader in television animation. Over the years, Barbera and Hanna continued to produce hit shows, including "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!", "The Jetsons", and "The Smurfs".
In 2001, Hanna-Barbera Productions was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation, and Barbera received executive producer credits for Warner Bros. sequels and adaptations of his old series. In 2005, he co-directed a new Tom and Jerry short film, "The Karate Guard", and was working on a Tom and Jerry feature film, "Tom and Jerry: A Nutcracker Tale", at the time of his death.
Joseph Barbera passed away in December 2006, at the age of 95, leaving behind a legacy of over 100 television series, enduring characters, and a long list of iconic cartoons that continue to entertain audiences around the world.
