Jerry Mouse

### Voice

Screaming VoicesWilliam Hanna (1940–1958)Sara Berner (1944–1945)Paul Frees (1951, 1956)Allen Swift (1961–1962)Mel Blanc (1963–1967)June Foray (1965–1967)John Stephenson (1975)Lou Scheimer (1980)Frank Welker (1980, 1990–2002)Samuel Vincent (2006–2008)Speaking and singing voiceDana Hill

**Jerry Mouse** is a fictional character and one of the two main protagonists in Metro-Goldwyn Mayer's series of *Tom and Jerry* theatrical cartoon short films. Created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Jerry is a brown mute house mouse, who first appeared as an unnamed mouse in the 1940 MGM animated short *Puss Gets the Boot*. Hanna gave the mouse's original name as "Jinx", while Barbera claimed the mouse went unnamed in his first appearance.

## History

### *Tom and Jerry* cartoons

The name "Jerry" was chosen by MGM animator John Carr, who submitted "Tom and Jerry" as potential names for the duo after an important Loew's Inc.. distributor in Texas asked for follow-ups to *Puss Gets the Boot*. While the idea of a cat-and-mouse duo was considered shopworn by the 1940s, Hanna and Barbera decided to expand upon the standard expected hunter/prey relationship. Their Jerry Mouse, an "incurable scene stealer", served more or less as the protagonist of most of the films; instead of being a "cowering victim" of his pursuer, Tom Cat, he took delight in besting, and often torturing, his antagonist (though sometimes, Tom is just following orders or is even just minding his own business and is antagonized by Jerry). Hanna and Barbera considered Tom and Jerry "the best of enemies", whose rivalry hid an unspoken amount of mutual respect but in *Tom and Jerry 1975*, they were friends/best friends/buddies.

In later *Tom and Jerry* cartoons, Jerry acquired a young ward: a small grey mouse called "Tuffy" or "Nibbles" depending upon the cartoon, who was left on Jerry's doorstep as a foundling baby in the 1946 short *The Milky Waif*. Jerry and Tuffy were also featured together in a sub-series of *Tom and Jerry* cartoons set in 17th century France which featured the characters as musketeers. The first of these shorts, *The Two Mouseketeers*, won the 1951 Academy Award for the Best Short Subject: Cartoons.

Hanna and Barbera served as writer/directors of the *Tom and Jerry* cartoons until 1956, when they also became the producers. Fourteen *Tom and Jerry* cartoons between 1940 and 1954 were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, with seven of the shorts winning that award. MGM shut down its animation department in 1957, but new *Tom and Jerry* cartoons were produced by Gene Deitch and later Chuck Jones during the 1960s. Jerry would also appear in later *Tom and Jerry* productions made for television, a series of direct-to-video features, and *Tom and Jerry: The Movie*, a 1992 theatrical film. Later productions eschewed much of the violence the 1940s and 1950s shorts were known for, and in several of the television shows Jerry was given a red bow tie and a kinder disposition.

### *Anchors Aweigh*

On his own, Jerry Mouse appears in a fantasy sequence in the 1945 Gene Kelly MGMmusical film *Anchors Aweigh*. Jerry appears as the ruler of a kingdom where music is banned because he feels he lacks talent, and Kelly persuades the mouse into performing a song-and-dance number with him. Kelly and MGM had originally wanted Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse as Kelly's dance partner for the sequence, but Disney was unwilling to license the character.

### *Tom & Jerry Kids*

In 1990, this version of Jerry wears a red bowtieform the 70's series, and has a tuft of hair on his head. He often taunts Tom (as a kitten) any chance he gets. Sometimes, in a few episodes, he is friends with Tom.