Barbera helped create Yogi Bear and Flintstones

Joe Barbera, half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that produced such beloved cartoon characters as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and the Flintstones, died Monday, a Warner Bros. spokesman said. He was 95.

Barbera died of natural causes at his Los Angeles home, Warner Bros. spokesman Gary Miereanu said.

With his longtime partner, Bill Hanna, Barbera teamed cat and mouse in the short “Puss Gets the Boot.” It earned an Academy Award nomination, and MGM let the pair keep experimenting until the full-fledged Tom and Jerry characters eventually were born. The antics of the battling cat and mouse went on to win seven Academy Awards.

The partners then went on to a whole new realm of success in the 1960s with a witty series of animated TV comedies, including “The Flintstones,” “The Jetsons,” “Yogi Bear,” “Scooby-Doo” and “Huckleberry Hound and Friends.”

Barbera brought the comic gags and skilled drawing, while Hanna brought warmth and a keen sense of timing.

Hanna, who died in 2001, once said he was never a good artist but his partner could “capture mood and expression in a quick sketch better than anyone I’ve ever known.”