Elliot Handler Elliot Handler Elliot Handler (April 9, 1916 – July 21, 2011) was an American inventor, businessman, and co-founder of Mattel. With his wife, he developed some of the biggest-selling toys in American history, including Barbie, Chatty Cathy, Creepy Crawlers, and Hot Wheels. Handler was born to a Jewish family in Chicago, Illinois, on April 9, 1916, and grew up in Denver, Colorado. He studied industrial design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In 1929, he met his future wife Ruth Mosko at a B'nai B'rith dance for teenagers. They later married and had two children: a
Evan Handler of his long journey toward gratitude in the years after his illness. The book was released in May 2008. Handler has written for several nationally distributed magazines, including "ELLE", "O, the Oprah Magazine", and "Mirabella". Handler contributes regularly to "The Huffington Post". Evan married Elisa Atti, an Italian-born chemist, in 2003, and they have a daughter, Sofia Clementina Handler (born January 17, 2007). Handler has a brother Lowell and a sister Lillian. Lowell Handler, a writer and photographer, is the author of the book "Twitch & Shout: A Touretter's Tale" and the star, narrator, and associate producer of the Emmy-nominated