Emmy Award-winning writer Chris Hayward, who is best known in the world of animation as the creator of Dudley Do-right, died, after battling a long disease, on Nov. 20, 2006, in Beverly Hills, reports VARIETY. He was 81.

Hayward started his writing career on Jay Ward's CRUSADER RABBIT, which turned into a staff writing gig at Jay Ward Prods. He wrote for ROCKY AND HIS FRIENDS and THE BULLWINKLE SHOW, which is where dimwitted Canadian Mountie Dudley Do-Right got his start.