Actor Kevin Conroy, the most beloved voice of Batman in the animated history of the character, died Thursday at age 66 after a short battle with cancer. A noted stage, film and television performer, Conroy rose to unparalleled voice acting fame as the title character of the landmark Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1996). He would […]
Archive for the ‘Obituaries’ Category
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Disney Legend Alice Davis Passes Away
November 7th, 2022 
Jerry Beck Alice M. Davis, whose delightfully detailed and meticulously researched costume designs for the landmark “It’s a Small World” and “Pirates of Caribbean” rides at Disneyland died peacefully surrounded by family and friends on November 3, 2022 at her Los Angeles home. She was 93. A pioneer at WED Enterprises, now known as Walt Disney Imagineering, […]
Carl Bell (1931-2022)
March 28th, 2022 Jerry Beck The Hollywood animation community has lost one of its stalwart animators and biggest champions – Carl Bell. Carl met Richard Williams at the Ontario College of Art in the early 1950s, and the two drove cross country in 1952 to seek their fortunes in animation. They ultimately went separate ways – but stayed in touch […]
Will Ryan R.I.P.
November 20th, 2021 Jerry Beck Our friend, cartoon voice over and songwriter/performer Will Ryan passed away yesterday afternoon, November 19th, from a short battle with cancer. He was 72. Will Ryan’s voice can be heard in more feature roles in more Oscar-winning films than perhaps any other actor, including such other favorites as playing Petrie in “The Land Before Time”, […]
Doug Crane, Master Animator and Cartoonist has died, at 85
December 20th, 2020 J.J. Sedelmaier Well folks, 2020 can’t end soon enough. I just received word that we’ve lost two more of our industry’s members. This is the note from Rose-Ellen Eastman, daughter of Doug and Maureen Crane: “I wanted to reach out and let you know some very sad news. My Mom passed away on Tuesday night after a […]
Ken Spears (1938-2020)
November 9th, 2020 Jerry Beck A few months after the passing of his partner Joe Ruby, we are sad to report Ken Spears has died. Spears died on November 6th, 2020 due to complications from Lewy body dementia. Mark Evanier first reported this info on his blog – and we recommend visiting his website for more information on this great […]
Joe Ruby (1933-2020)
August 27th, 2020 Jerry Beck Cartoonist, Animator and Producer Joseph Ruby has passed away. Ruby (with his partner Ken Spears) was instrumental in creating Scooby Doo Where Are You in 1969 for Hanna Barbera. In 1977 Ruby and Spears launched their own animation studio – Ruby-Spears Productions – bringing Thundarr The Barbarian, Fangface, Mt. T, Plastic Man, Chuck Norris, Dragon’s […]
Gene Deitch (1924-2020)
April 19th, 2020 Jerry Beck Animator Gene Deitch (August 8, 1924 – April 16, 2020) passed away Thursday (4/16) of natural causes (unrelated to the current corona virus pandemic). For the last 25 years (or so) I was very proud to have been his friend. His life’s work and his personal journey was quite incredible. Luckily he documented much of […]
Dave Michener 1932-2018
May 3rd, 2018 Jerry Beck Dave Michener, a veteran Disney animator, story artist, and director from 1956 up until his retirement from The Walt Disney Studios in 1987, passed away on February 15th, 2018, it was reported by his wife, Donna. He was 85 years old. Michener died at his home in Los Angeles, California from complications due to a […]
Chuck McCann (1934-2018)
April 8th, 2018 Jerry Beck Voice actor, puppeteer, and comedic actor Chuck McCann, has passed. He died Sunday afternoon at Cedar-Sinai Medical Center. He was 83. If you grew up in New York or the tri-state area, McCann was an ever-present figure on channel 11 (WPIX), after school, becoming a second father to many of us with his skits and […]
Remembering June Foray
July 27th, 2017 Jim Korkis The world is much too quiet today with the passing of June Foray. Fortunately, she got a chance to catch a small glimpse of how much people loved her when she was the victim on December 30, 2016 of a fake news story that she had passed away. The instant flood of sincere appreciation for […]
