Eric Bauza might not be an obviously recognizable name to most people, but in the animation community he was a legend. He took over the voices of many animated characters, including Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, after the passing of those characters’ original voice, Mel Blanc. He’s doing most of the Warner Bros. characters in the recent Coyote v. Acme film, as well as several voices in the upcoming Cat in the Hat picture.
And that being said … he was known to do several fan conventions and comic-cons over the years.
He was scheduled to participate in a comic-con in Burbank last Sunday … but unfortunately and tragically, Bauza passed away that morning. He was 46 years old.
The animation community mourned the loss of a gentle and versatile soul.
However … his passing caused a bit of a kerfuffle at that Burbank fan convention.
As noted by this … shall we say … poorly-timed Facebook post.
Um … “he had to cancel his appearance due to personal commitments??”
Well, I guess you can’t get any more personal than passing away from congestive heart disease. Yikes.
Now, reading the comments did reveal that Bauza indeed had a conflict at Toon-Con in that he was also supposed to be somewhere else to promote his appearance in the Cat in the Hat film. Which commitment was made prior to Bauza’s passing.
But man oh man, that can NOT be the best timing for a “he’s unavailable” announcement.
Then again … maybe they could see if Mel Blanc could fill in on a moment’s notice.
Oh, wait … 😀
Um, Chuck; it says “professional” commitments. I mean my eyesight is bad and my comprehension skills getting worse by the minute, but I checked three times. Maybe he cancelled before he died. He could hardly have done so afterwards, except by default.
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Eric Bauza was just the latest to inherit the mantle of Mel Blanc. In recent times, WB has used other actors before Bauza came along, including Jeff Bergman, and the 518’s gift to animation, the late Joe Alaskey (who did Yosemite Sam & Foghorn Leghorn, in particular). RIP, Eric. Gone too soon.
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