WASHINGTON (AFP) - William Steig, the famed cartoonist for “The New Yorker” magazine and the illustrator of countless children’s books including "Shrek," died Friday in Boston at the age of 95, “The New York Times” reported Sunday.

Steig authored more than 25 children's books as well as bringing wry smiles to the faces of generations of New Yorker readers. The blue-eyed humorist published his first New Yorker cartoon in 1930. It pictured a prison inmate telling a fellow inmate: "My son's incorrigible, I can't do a thing with him."

Steig followed this up with over 1,600 drawings for the magazine and 117 covers.

Of late, he was best-known for the book "Shrek," a charming fairy tale of an ogre who rescues a beautiful princess.

The book was made into an animated movie in 2001 and won an Academy Award as the best animated feature film.

The cartoonist was born into modest beginnings on November 14, 1907, in Brooklyn, the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants.

Initially rebuffed by “The New Yorker,” Steig was given a second chance during a change of editor and went onto become one of America's most well-known illustrators.

Steig's last book, published in June, was "When Everybody Wore a Hat," about his childhood.

The cartoonist is survived by three children and two grandchildren.