American animation icon Joe Ruby, died on Wednesday in Westlake Village, California aged 87. “Natural causes” have been reported as cause of death.
His grandson Benjamin Ruby honoured his memory: “He never stopped writing and creating, even as he aged,” he recalled fondly.
Ruby is probably best known for animating Scooby-Doo, the ever-popular children’s mystery franchise that evolved from TV to books and the big screen, with his partner Ken Spears.
The cartoon launched on CBS in 1969 after going through a series of trial and error approaches before they hit the nail on the head with crime fighting clan Freddie, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and a Great Dane named Scooby-Doo.
The show was released as a gentler series following complaints about violence in cartoons such as Space Ghost.
READ MORE: Tony Allen dead: Afrobeat co-founder and drummer dies aged 79
Ruby and Spears wrote the first five episodes, supervising and story editing the rest of the first season.
The original series ran until 1976, which led to numerous reboots, film adaptations and spin-offs.
Ruby started his career as an inbetweener at Walt Disney Productions and met Spears while working at Hanna-Barbera Productions.
The pair eventually set up their own company Ruby-Spears Productions, where they created Mister T, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Superman, Thundarr the Barbarian, Fangface and The Plastic Man Comedy-Adventure Hour.
The duo are also behind Jabberjaw, a series about four kids and a whale who solve mysteries in the year 2021.
Alongside animation, Ruby wrote the sci-fi thriller series Planet of the Apes in 1974 and the horror film Rumpelstiltskin in 1995.
The seasoned animator also executive-produced Punky Brewster, the 1983 TV film Beauty and the Beast, and the series Rambo.
Fans took to Twitter to share their condolences with his family and to honour his memory, telling tales of how his work affected their childhoods.
“Man, RIP Joe Ruby – 1933-2020. This one really hurts,” one fan sighed.
“As a Sat AM Cartoon fan, this guy was huge! He was half of Ruby-Spears, who created THUNDARR THE BARBARIAN, GOLDIE GOLD, and a slew of others, but he was also the co-creator of SCOOBY DOO!”
Another said: “RIP Joe Ruby, co-creator of Scooby-Doo, Jabberjaw, Captain Caveman & several others.
“Watching old VHS tapes of those guys and tracking down clips and episodes on YouTube (in its early days, before any copyright rules were really enforced) was a huge part of my childhood.”
“I just found out that Joe Ruby died yesterday at the age of 87. He had a long successful career in animation working first as an inbetweener at Disney before moving to Hanna Barbera where he and Ken Spears created Jabberjaw and Scooby-Doo. I’ll miss him,” someone else looked back on his life.
Ruby is survived by his wife of 63 years, Carole, four children and 10 grandchildren.