French Animator Bruno Bianchi (“Inspector Gadget”) Passes Away

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Animationmagazine.net is reporting that prominent French television animator Bruno Bianchi passed away this morning. Bianchi was a co-creator of the popular Inspector Gadget series in the early 1980s, and worked on a number of animation shows as a writer, director and artist. Services for Mr. Bianchi will be held on Tuesday (Dec. 6) at Le Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

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  • http://pitchbibles.blogspot.com Steve Schnier

    I met Bruno while working on Inspector Gadget. He was a nice man.

  • http://cloudbreadandfriends.blogspot.com Woody Yocum

    Bruno Bianchi was a wonderful original artist whose good humor and great sense of fun was shown in everything he did. He created ‘Inspector Gadget’ and lead a wonderful crew in Tokyo, Toronto and LA. All of us who worked for him will never forget him and he was a role model for many of us. We will all miss him so very much.

  • James Madison

    RIP

  • William R Kowalchuk

    Woody Yocum said it all… so eloquently. Bruno… we will all miss you… a very funny and incredible talent… and also one of the world’s greatest practical jokers. A fact to which Walt Sturgeon will forever attest!

  • http://youtube.com/user/Mesterius1 Mesterius

    Nnoooooo!! :( This can’t be true!… he was still only in his fifties! This guy is one of my heroes from the world of television animation. I love Bruno’s original 1983 “Inspector Gadget” series (one of my favorite cartoon shows of all time) and several of his other shows as well, such as “Iznogoud” from the 90s. He will be missed. Personally, I only know Bianchi through his work, but I don’t doubt a second what others here say about his “good humor and great sense of fun”. It certainly shines through in his cartoons:)

    By the way, Steve, Woody, William and others… I’d love to hear more from you about your memories of Bruno. Seeing as there are almost no interviews with him published anywhere (except for video interviews in French, which I wish someone would subtitle), I know very little about the man who created some of my favorite childhood cartoons. Any anecdotes/memories about working with Bianchi on Inspector Gadget, or other shows – or just about him as a person – will be very much appreciated:)

  • Dale and dave Cox

    Well said Woody. Bruno was our smiling and dear friend when we worked with him on Inspector Gadget in Tokyo in 1983…..and forever….. We miss him, Dale and Dave.

  • http://youtube.com/user/Mesterius1 Mesterius

    By the way, my personal fan tribute to Bruno Bianchi is up at nexttime-gadget.blogspot.com! I talk a little about my favote animated series from Bruno’s career and what his work meant to me. Here’s the url: http://nexttime-gadget.blogspot.com/2011/12/gadgets-co-creator-character-designer.html