Elliot Handler

Elliot Handler (April 9, 1916 – July 21, 2011) was an American toy designer, inventor, and business executive best known as the co-founder of Mattel, Inc., alongside his wife Ruth Handler and partner Harold Matson, and for creating the iconic Hot Wheels toy line.

Born Isadore Elliot Handler to Ukrainian Jewish immigrant parents in Chicago, Illinois, he grew up in Denver, Colorado, as the second of four sons. After high school, Handler moved to Los Angeles, where he studied industrial design at the Art Center School and married his high school sweetheart, Ruth Mosko, in 1938. The couple had two children: daughter Barbara (the inspiration for the Barbie doll's name) and son Kenneth (namesake of the Ken doll), though Kenneth died in 1994, and Ruth passed away in 2002.

Elliot Handler was born Isadore Elliot Handler on April 9, 1916, in Chicago, Illinois, to Samuel and Frieda Handler, Jewish parents who had immigrated from the Russian Empire. He grew up in Denver, Colorado, where his family resided by the 1930s during the Great Depression era.

Handler was the second of three sons in a Jewish immigrant household, which emphasized resourcefulness amid economic hardships. His siblings included brothers Albert and Sidney, as well as a sister named Sylvia. The family's modest circumstances in Denver, as an immigrant family navigating the challenges of the time, likely fostered an early sense of self-reliance that influenced his later pursuits. He was survived by his brother Sidney Handler later in life.