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In Memoriam: Remembering The Animation Figures Who Died In 2022
2022 saw the animation community lose key figures whose influence will live on long after their passing. As we do each year, we’ve collected the tributes and obituaries we published over the last 12 months to honor those who are no longer with us.
We’ve linked through to our coverage below. In putting together this collection, we were impressed by the incredible diversity of backgrounds for many of these influential figures. We lost artists, technicians, writers, and studio founders from around the world and from varying socioeconomic backgrounds, each of whom made incredible impacts on the industry and art form. Many lived and worked in multiple countries throughout their career, demonstrating the universal appeal of the animation art form.
Many of these artists and craftspeople, who laid the foundation on which so many artists work today, are unknown or underappreciated, a fact that became clear as we researched their lives for these stories. That’s perhaps inevitable in an art form that often requires dozens – or even hundreds – of people to create just a few minutes of animation. These obituaries are therefore one small way to help set the record straight and give these people the due they deserve.
Gil Alkabetz
Celebrated Israeli filmmaker behind shorts like Rubicon and Morir De Amor
Jules Bass
Co-founder of Rankin/Bass Productions
Carl Bell
Canadian animator and champion of the art form
Anne D. Bernstein
Writer on MTV’s Daria and Downtown
Claudio Biern Boyd
Spanish creator of David The Gnome, Dogtanian
Borivoj Dovniković-Bordo
Iconic Croatian filmmaker and part of the Zagreb school of animation
Raymond Briggs
Author and illustrator of The Snowman, When the Wind Blows
Mike Camarillo
Industry artist who worked on The Powerpuff Girls, The Road to El Dorado, and The Simpsons
Paul Coker Jr.
Designer of timeless Rankin/Bass holiday special characters; one of Mad magazine’s “usual gang of idiots”
Kevin Conroy
Longtime Batman voice actor
Ralph Eggleston
Legendary art director and a cornerstone of Pixar’s visual style
Jonathan Gales
BAFTA-winning co-founder of vfx/animation studio Factory Fifteen
Lina Gagnon
Canadian animator and educator who worked on The Man Who Planted Trees
Gilbert Gottfried
Aladdin and Cyberchase voice actor
Norma Swank-Haviland
Disney ink-&-paint artist and early Chip voice actor
Dylan Hoffman
Lead character technical director on Kamp Koral
Ken Knowlton
A founding father of computer art and animation
Shichiro Kobayashi
Prolific art director of Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, Berserk
John Korty
Renegade indie filmmaker; Twice Upon A Time and Sesame Street director
Thilo Kuther
Founder of Oscar-winning vfx company Pixomondo
Fernando Laverde
Colombian stop motion Pioneer
Tony Mines
Pioneer of “brickfilm” animation technique
George R. Newall
School House Rock! and Drawing Power co-creator
Yuji Nunokawa
Founder of Naruto, Bleach, and Yu Yu Hakusho studio Pierrot
Manabu Ohashi
Veteran animator and director of Cloud
Everett Peck
Duckman and Squirrel Boy creator; award-winning illustrator; educator
Vlasta Pospíšilová
Icon of the golden age of Czech puppet animation
Gerald Potterton
Director of Heavy Metal an the “Liverpool” sequence of Yellow Submarine
Jan Rabson
Voice actor for Akira, Leisure Suit Larry, and Pixar films
Peter Robbins
Original voice of Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
Jan Rogowski
U.K.-based Red Star studio co-founder
Jean-Jacques Sempé
Illustrator and cartoonist; co-creator of Little Nicholas
Andrei Svislotski
Russian animation director and key figure at Klasky Csupo
Kazuki Takahashi
Yu-Gi-Oh! creator
Eugene Troubetzkoy
Nuclear physicist and Blue Sky Studios co-founder
Pictured at top: Ralph Eggleston, Vlasta Pospíšilová, Kazuki Takahashi, John Korty