In Memoriam: Remembering The Animation Figures Who Died In 2022

U.K.-based Red Star studio co-founder
Director of Heavy Metal an the “Liverpool” sequence of Yellow Submarine
Legendary art director and a cornerstone of Pixar’s visual style

Gil Alkabetz

Lead character technical director on Kamp Koral

Rankin Bass

Jules Bass

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.

Carl Bell

Designer of timeless Rankin/Bass holiday special characters; one of Mad magazine’s “usual gang of idiots”

Anne D. Bernstein

Founder of Oscar-winning vfx company Pixomondo

'David the Gnome,' 'Dogtanian'

Claudio Biern Boyd

BAFTA-winning co-founder of vfx/animation studio Factory Fifteen

Borivoj Dovniković-Bordo

Longtime Batman voice actor

Raymond Briggs

Nuclear physicist and Blue Sky Studios co-founder

Mike Camarillo

Writer on MTV’s Daria and Downtown

Paul Coker Jr.

Icon of the golden age of Czech puppet animation

Kevin Conroy 'Batman: The Animated Series'

Kevin Conroy

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.

Ralph Eggleston

Voice actor for Akira, Leisure Suit Larry, and Pixar films

Jonathan Gales

Veteran animator and director of Cloud

Lina Gagnon

A founding father of computer art and animation

Gilbert Gottfried

Colombian stop motion Pioneer

Norma Swank-Haviland

Iconic Croatian filmmaker and part of the Zagreb school of animation

Dylan Hoffman

School House Rock! and Drawing Power co-creator

Ken Knowlton

Original voice of Charlie Brown in A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Shichirō Kobayashi

Shichiro Kobayashi

Industry artist who worked on The Powerpuff Girls, The Road to El Dorado, and The Simpsons

John Korty

Prolific art director of Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, Berserk

Thilo Kuther, 'Hugo'

Thilo Kuther

Illustrator and cartoonist; co-creator of Little Nicholas

Fernando Laverde

Aladdin and Cyberchase voice actor

Tony Mines

Canadian animator and champion of the art form

Tom Yohe & George Newall

George R. Newall

Celebrated Israeli filmmaker behind shorts like Rubicon and Morir De Amor

Manabu Ohashi

Canadian animator and educator who worked on The Man Who Planted Trees

Duckman Everett Peck

Everett Peck

Pioneer of “brickfilm” animation technique

Vlasta Pospíšilová, Maryška and Wolf Castle

Vlasta Pospíšilová

Author and illustrator of The Snowman, When the Wind Blows

Gerald Potterton

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.

Jan Rabson voices