William John "Bill" Hooper was born on 21 August 1916 in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and went to boarding school in Kent. His first job after school was as a lab assistant in a Windsor medical clinic, before beginning a degree in metallurgy at Imperial College, London, which he dropped out of after two terms. He spent some time in Ireland working as a bodyguard, before scratching a living as a painter.
He married Noelle Lang in Eton, Buckinghamshire, in 1940. Early in the Second World War he enlisted in the RAF as an air gunner before being transferred to ground staff. During his military service he met Anthony Armstrong, editor of the training manual Tee Emm, and the two of them created Pilot Officer Prune, a cartoon character used to illustrate instructions for pilots, Hooper using the pseudonym Raff. A number of books starring the character were published after the war.
Hooper then became a political cartoonist for the Sunday Chronicle. He later formed a studio to produce animation for the BBC, and presented the BBC TV series Willy the Pup. He drew a strip cartoon for The Star, and wrote a column for the Sunday Pictorial.
He died on 14 October 1996 in Worthing, Sussex. His wife had predeceased him in 1979. Their son John is a journalist and author.