World’s most famous doll loses her mother

Ruth Handler, the creator of Barbie, the world’s most popular doll, has died. She was 85. Handler, who also co-founded the Mattel toy company, died at Century City Hospital on Saturday, a hospital spokesperson said without releasing details. Her husband, Elliott, told the Los Angeles Times that his wife died of complications from colon surgery she underwent about three months ago.

Since Handler’s creation, named after her daughter Barbara, was introduced in 1959 it has become an American icon and a touchstone of cultural politics. The impossibly well-endowed doll — her original figure would be about 39-18-33 if she were human — has infuriated feminists, inspired artists and intrigued academics around the world. Barbie was even placed in the official ‘‘America’s Time Capsule’’ buried in 1976.

The original blue-eyed, blonde fashion model has morphed over the decades into a variety of ethnic looks and has had many careers. ‘‘My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be,’’ Handler wrote in a 1994 autobiography. ‘‘Barbie always represented the fact that a woman has choices.’’