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

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Jules Bass

Co-founder of Rankin/Bass Productions

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Carl Bell

Canadian animator and champion of the art form

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Anne D. Bernstein

Writer on MTV’s Daria and Downtown

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Claudio Biern Boyd

Spanish creator of David The Gnome, Dogtanian

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Borivoj Dovniković-Bordo

Iconic Croatian filmmaker and part of the Zagreb school of animation

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Raymond Briggs

Author and illustrator of The Snowman, When the Wind Blows

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Mike Camarillo

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

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Paul Coker Jr.

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

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Kevin Conroy

Longtime Batman voice actor

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Ralph Eggleston

Legendary art director and a cornerstone of Pixar’s visual style

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Jonathan Gales

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

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Lina Gagnon

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

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Gilbert Gottfried

Aladdin and Cyberchase voice actor

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Norma Swank-Haviland

Disney ink-&-paint artist and early Chip voice actor

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Dylan Hoffman

Lead character technical director on Kamp Koral

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Ken Knowlton

A founding father of computer art and animation

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Shichiro Kobayashi

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

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John Korty

Renegade indie filmmaker; Twice Upon A Time and Sesame Street director

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Thilo Kuther

Founder of Oscar-winning vfx company Pixomondo

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Fernando Laverde

Colombian stop motion Pioneer

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Tony Mines

Pioneer of “brickfilm” animation technique

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George R. Newall

School House Rock! and Drawing Power co-creator

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Yuji Nunokawa

Founder of Naruto, Bleach, and Yu Yu Hakusho studio Pierrot

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Manabu Ohashi

Veteran animator and director of Cloud

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Everett Peck

Duckman and Squirrel Boy creator; award-winning illustrator; educator

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Vlasta Pospíšilová

Icon of the golden age of Czech puppet animation

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Gerald Potterton

Director of Heavy Metal an the “Liverpool” sequence of Yellow Submarine

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Jan Rabson

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

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Peter Robbins

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

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Jan Rogowski

U.K.-based Red Star studio co-founder

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Jean-Jacques Sempé

Illustrator and cartoonist; co-creator of Little Nicholas

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Andrei Svislotski

Russian animation director and key figure at Klasky Csupo

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Kazuki Takahashi

Yu-Gi-Oh! creator

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Eugene Troubetzkoy

Nuclear physicist and Blue Sky Studios co-founder