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A look back at members of our community who died in 2016.

The post Animation Community Members We’ve Lost in 2016 appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

The influential singer-songwriter has passed at age 69.

The post David Bowie, RIP appeared first on Cartoon Brew.

Don't believe everything you read.

Culhane also inspired the character of Flying John in "Fantasia/2000."

The director worked with Christopher Lee on the animated short "The Fall of the House of Usher."

"One of the best souls I've ever met," says longtime collaborator Aaron Blaise.

He voiced iconic cartoon characters like Pete Puma, Junyer Bear, and Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent.

Colleagues and admirers are remembering the creative genius of the man who helped create "The Simpsons."

From "Muppet Babies" to "Heavy Metal," British animator and director Jeff Hale had an eclectic animation career.

Mel Crawford spent decades drawing the world's most famous cartoon characters, but he didn't do it at any animation studio.

Over a fifty-plus-year career as a voiceover artist, Gary Owens appeared in thousands of animated TV episodes.

Animation veteran Phil Robinson, one of the founders of the former San Francisco studio Wild Brain, has died.

Walt Peregoy, the legendary artist who was the color stylist of Disney's "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" and headed up Hanna-Barbera's background department for a time during the late-Sixties, has passed away at the age 89.

José Luis Moro Escalona, who ran one of Spain's leading commercial animation studios and created the iconic Familia Telerín, died yesterday in Madrid at the age of 88.

Voice actress Christine Cavanaugh passed away on December 22 at the age of 51. Cavanaugh was an unforgettable voice of Nineties-era animation, bringing to life Dexter on Dexter’s Laboratory, Chuckie on Rugrats, Gosalyn Mallard in Darkwing Duck, and the titular character in the 1995 feature Babe, just to name a few of her more famous roles. Cavanaugh abruptly retired from voice acting in 2001 at the age of 38, and was not heard from again until the announcement of her death today. No location or cause of death were announced by her family. The death announcement published today won’t do anything to answer the questions about Cavanaugh’s final years. The notice contains numerous cryptic and un-obituary-like comments that only deepen the intrigue, alluding to the “unpleasantness of reality,” “intelligence to…accept what fate had allowed,” and the “evolution in her life”: Many know of her from the roles she played, but in each role there was a part of her showing through that the ones who truly knew her could see. The childlike awe of the world, humor to deal with the unpleasantness of reality, strength to deal with the challenges we all face, and intelligence to know when to act or accept what fate had allowed. Christine lived her life the way she wanted. Accolades, notoriety, and recognition were not the reason for her interest in entertainment, it was for the love of entertainment, to make people smile. When her life changed she found herself needing the quiet of the country and her love changed from entertaining to hiking, reading, writing and living a simple life. Even with the evolution in her life her wit, wisdom and imagination were still alive and well. Cavanaugh did not have any children and was divorced from her husband Kevin James Cavanaugh. Her voice acting colleagues have been expressing condolences on Twitter: The moment I met #ChristineCavanaugh I was star struck & in awe. She had an ethereal beauty & unparalleled other worldly genius. #ripangel — tara strong (@tarastrong) December 30, 2014 Candi Milo, who replaced Cavanaugh as the voice of Dexter, wrote: @lego566 @chickenzach thank you both. very sad at the loss of my friend. I could never hold a candle to her talent… — Candi Milo (@candimilo) December 31, 2014 The animation family has lost a real treasure, sweet lady & great talent. RIP #ChristineCavanaugh! You'll be missed! — Bill Farmer (@GoofyBill) December 31, 2014 HAd lots of amazing adventures with the brilliant #ChristineCavanaugh my buddy "Chuckie" #TheRUGRATS R.I.P Chris pic.twitter.com/x7MxsJjHyL — RealEGDaily (@RealEGDaily) December 31, 2014

Norman Bridwell, creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog, died last Friday at the age of 86.

Celebrated stage and film director Mike Nichols ("Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?," "The Graduate) died yesterday at the age of 83.

Legendary Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall has died at the age of 89.

Here are the official statements on the death of Robin Williams provided by Eric Goldberg, the supervising animator of the Genie in "Aladdin," and John Musker and Ron Clements, the directors of "Aladdin."

Ron Tippe, the animation producer of the live-action/animated hybrid feature "Space Jam" and the Oscar-nominated Disney short "Runaway Brain," passed away on August 1st after a year-and-a-half battle with brain cancer.

Actor Robin Williams has died at the age of 63 from an apparent suicide.

Dickie Jones, the voice of Pinocchio in the 1940 Disney film, died on July 7, 2014. He was 87 years old.

Today we honor the memory of a lifelong champion of children and reading who recently passed away. Ruth P. Graves, President Emerita of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), was an early supporter of First Book and a leader who displayed a passion for reaching children through books. Ruth believed that every child deserved the magic of books, and made it her life’s work to ensure that magic for hundreds of thousands of children every year. During more than three decades of commitment to RIF, Ruth helped to extend RIF’s work to reach to support more than three million children nationwide.

First Book and RIF have worked together at the national and local levels for many years to support RIF’s mission of inspiring children to become lifelong readers through the opportunity to select and own their own books.  We are very grateful to Ruth for her commitment to RIF’s mission and her support of First Book during the early years of our organization, including providing First Book with one of our first grants that allowed us to reach our country’s poorest children.  Ruth’s contributions have been many and her legacy will live on through the amazing work that RIF continues to do today. She changed the world for the better and inspired others to do the same.

In  honor of Ruth’s work,  memorial contributions may be made to Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), P.O. Box 33728, Washington, DC 20033 or through the Donate/Ways to Give pages at www.rif.org.   First Book is also pleased to distribute 1,000 new books to children in Ms. Graves’ home state of Texas in her honor.

The post Ruth P. Graves: Lifelong Champion of Children and Reading appeared first on First Book Blog.

Background painter and stylist Ron Dias died in California on Tuesday, July 30th at the age of 76. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 15, 1937, he first decided to pursue an art career after seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the age of 6.

A graduate of the Honolulu Academy of Art and the correspondence art program Famous Artists School, he was hired at the Disney Studios in 1956 after winning a nationwide stamp contest. He explains his unlikely path into the animation world in this video interview:

Starting in the inbetween department during the production of Sleeping Beauty, this would be the beginning of a forty-plus year association with the Disney Company that included illustrating their characters for Golden Books, art directing limited edition cels for Disney Art Editions, art directing The Little Mermaid TV series and creating artwork for Disney’s interactive CD-ROMs in the 1990s.

His background art was seen in the cartoons of many major studios during the animation industry’s silver age, including Hanna-Barbera (Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear, Jonny Quest, The Man Called Flintstone), DePatie-Freleng (The Pink Panther), Warner Bros. (Return of Duck Dodgers in the 24 ½ century), UPA (Uncle Sam Magoo) and Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings. He also worked as a color stylist on The Secret of NIMH (pictured above), Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace for Don Bluth, and the Toon Town sequence in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (below).

He retired to California’s Monterey Peninsula in 1999, focusing on fine art painting and advocacy for art in the school system. He is survived by his partner of thirty-five years, Howard, as well as two sons and three grandchildren. Go here to see a portfolio of Ron Dias’s artwork.

British animation director, designer and studio owner John Wilson (above, left) passed away on Friday, June 21st, according to a report published by Michael Sporn. Wilson was born in 1920 in Wimbledon, London, England. Per his personal biographical notes:

He attended the Royal College of Art and was working by age 18 as a commercial artist with Willings Press Service. In WWII he served with the London Rifle Brigade in African where he was seriously wounded. Recuperating in hospital, he drew many cartoons of which several were printed. Eventually he would recover and get work at Pinewood Studios in the art department where he worked on Great Expectations and The Thief of Baghdad, among other films.

Wilson’s animation career began at the Gaumont British Animation studio in the late-1940s. He moved to the United States in the early-1950s, where he worked at UPA and Disney. His sole screen credit from this period was as a layout artist on the Disney short Pigs is Pigs (1954):

In 1954, he started his own studio Fine Arts Films. Among his well known projects from the period was a 1956 short film Petroushka that was arranged and conducted by Igor Stravinsky himself. The 16-minute film aired as part of the The Sol Hurok Music Hour, and is regarded as an early example of an animated TV special.

Wilson also directed this classic television spot voiced and written by Stan Freberg for Instant Butter-Nut Coffee (1958):

Other projects included directing the trailer for the live-action feature Irma La Douce (1963):

…directing the animated feature Shinbone Alley (1971):

…and directing the main titles for the 1978 musical film Grease:

A biography and full credit list can be found at John Wilson’s website FineArtsFilms.com. A generous selection of his artwork is available at Michael Sporn’s website.