Who was Joe Ruby, the co-creator of Scooby Doo?

Joe Ruby, the co-creator of the cartoon series Scooby-Doo, has died aged 87. He created the much-loved characters alongside his creative partner Ken Spears

Joe Ruby was born in Los Angeles on March 30, 1933. After graduating, he joined the United States Navy and worked as a sonar operator on a destroyer during the Korean War.

He started  his career at Walt Disney Productions as music editor. He pursued his passion at the side as a freelance comic book artist and writer.

Ruby started in sound editing at Hanna-Barbera in 1960. Ruby and Spears met when they were working as sound editors at the cartoon giant Hanna-Barbera and went on to create the popular series centering on the talking Great Dane and his friends Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and Fred.

The animation show premiered on CBS in 1969 and four of the first 25 episodes were written and story-edited by them.

In 1977, the duo launched their own studio, Ruby-Spears Productions and produced various animation classics. Ruby was nominated for the Daytime Emmy award on four occasions.