Tom (of Tom and Jerry)

Tom is the grey-blue house cat at the centre of 'Tom and Jerry', the theatrical cartoon series created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for MGM, first appearing in the 1940 short 'Puss Gets the Boot'. Across dozens of shorts, Tom's endless, doomed pursuit of the quick-witted mouse Jerry became one of the most famous rivalries in animation and won the series seven Academy Awards for Best Animated Short — more than any other character-based cartoon franchise.

The genius of the pairing is that it needs almost no dialogue. The comedy is built entirely from motion, timing, and elaborate slapstick: Tom scheming to catch Jerry, the plan backfiring spectacularly, and Tom absorbing an inventive variety of flattenings, explosions, and pratfalls. For all his aggression, Tom is a surprisingly sympathetic character — often the underdog despite being the larger animal, and the two frequently team up when a bigger threat appears, hinting at a grudging friendship beneath the chaos.

More than eighty years after his debut, Tom remains a fixture of children's television around the world, endlessly rerun and periodically revived in new shorts and films. He stands as a reminder that a cat chasing a mouse — the oldest predatory relationship there is — can be spun into comedy of almost limitless variety.