Voice actor Eric Bauza, famously known as the current voice of Looney Tunes characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, passed away. He was 46 years old. His family revealed the news on Sunday night, calling his passing “sudden” and saying “more details” would come in the future.
Born December 7, 1979, the Canadian actor was a production assistant and voice actor on the short-lived Fox Kids show The Ripping Friends. He then replaced Billy West as Stimpy on SpikeTV’s Ren & Stimpy “Adult Party Cartoon,” after which he was all over film and TV. If you were a kid in the 2000s and watched Nick or Cartoon Network, you’d hear him on El Tigre, HiHi Puffy AmiYumi, and Avatar: The Last Airbender in recurring or minor roles.
In terms of franchises, Eric Bauza wasn’t exclusive to Looney Tunes, which began when he voiced Marvin the Martian in The Looney Tunes Show. Marvel animation fans might remember as Zeke Stane in Iron Man: Armored Adventures or Amadeus Cho in the Avengers Confidential anime; to DC lovers, he was Ryan Choi (Justice League: Gods & Monsters) or Two-Face (Batman Ninja), to name a few. And more recently, he was Splinter in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, D.A. Sinclair in Invincible, and Dishy in Date Everything.
This year, Bauza could be heard in Forgotten Island, the indie horror flick Buddy, and several characters within Coyote vs. Acme. (Bugs, Daffy, Foghorn Leghorn—every male Looney Tunes character, basically, save for Taz.) He was vocal about the film’s cancellation and resurrection, encouraging his followers on social media to see the film in theaters. He’ll play the Looney cast in a short attached to The Cat in the Hat, but at time of writing, it’s not clear what other future projects, Looney Tunes or otherwise, he lent his voice to.
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