Eric Bauza, the Emmy-winning voice actor who carried Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and a whole barnyard of Looney Tunes legends into a new generation, died Sunday. He was 46.
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His family broke the news late Sunday night on his Instagram page. “Eric Bauza, Emmy Award-winning voice actor and the modern voice of iconic Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck… has passed away suddenly,” the statement read, adding that more details would follow.
According to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, he died at his residence of hypertensive cardiovascular disease, which is a heart condition tied to high blood pressure.
It’s a quiet killer, and it keeps showing up in the headlines of people who seemed to be in the middle of their prime. And Bauza was in the middle of his. Just a day before he died, he posted a photo with animator David Silverman at the LightBox Expo in Pasadena, still out there showing love to the animation community.
His voice was also fresh in theaters this year, as he voiced several Looney Tunes characters in the hit film Coyote vs. Acme.
Born December 7, 1979, in Scarborough, Ontario, to Filipino parents, Bauza started out doing impressions of the accents he heard at home. He later studied broadcasting at Centennial College, then worked his way up from his 2001 debut on the Canadian series The Ripping Friends to more than 400 credits. He ended up inheriting a role carved out by the late Mel Blanc himself. When he got the Bugs gig, he stayed humble about it. “Who grows up thinking that they’re going to be Bugs Bunny?” he said in a CBC News interview.
Beyond Bugs and Daffy, he voiced Porky Pig, Tweety, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn, Elmer Fudd, and Pepé Le Pew. He was Puss in Boots in Netflix’s The Adventures of Puss in Boots, Baby Fozzie in Muppet Babies, and even Luke Skywalker in animated Star Wars projects.
Viewers also caught him in Space Jam: A New Legacy, the 2021 LeBron James sequel that had a lot of us back in the Tune Squad frame of mind. Over the years, he picked up three Children’s & Family Emmys for his work on Teen Titans Go!, Bugs Bunny Builders, and Looney Tunes Cartoons.
The tributes came in fast. Fellow voice actor Josh Keaton called him “one of the humblest, kindest, most supportive souls in the business.” Warner Bros. Television Group chair Channing Dungey said Bauza “brought joy and laughter to millions around the world,” and called him a treasured part of the studio’s animation family. Jim Cummings, the voice of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, wrote that he was “at a loss for words.”
Bauza leaves behind a child, a loving family, and a catalog of laughs that isn’t going anywhere.