Eric Bauza, 46, who has won hearts as the voice of Bugs Bunny dies of heart failure
Toronto, Canada
By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
“What’s up, Doc?”
It’s something everyone will miss Eric Bauza as saying.
Bauza passed away last October 25 of a heart failure in his home in Los Angeles, California. He was 46.
Born to Filipino immigrant parents in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada on December 7, 1979, Bauza loved the Looney Tunes series as a kid. He loved Bugs Bunny so much that he started imitating the character’s voice.
He got so good at it that he eventually became the modern voice of the wisecracking rabbit, as well as classic cartoon characters like Daffy Duck and Porky Pig.
“What he did was not simply do an imitation of the voices, which a lot of people could probably do,” film critic Richard Crouse told CTV News. “He brought personality to it. He brought acting ability to these voices.”
Looney Tunes is a classic American animated media franchise created by Warner Bros. that ran from the 1930s to the 1960s.
The franchise expanded into TV shows, comic books, video games, theme park attractions, and full-length feature films (such as Space Jam) as well as thousands of merchandise.
Bauza assumed the role of the legendary, Mel Blanc, as the voice of Bugs Bunny. He did voice acting for four of the 12 most popular Looney Tunes characters and won three Children’s & Family Emmy Awards and was nominated for five Daytime Emmys, according to imdb.com.
“Eric Bauza was a unique voice talent who brought joy and laughter to millions around the world. During his 15 years at Warner Bros. Animation, he was the voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck among countless other characters. He followed in the footsteps of giants like Mel Blanc. Eric said that carrying on the legendary legacy of the Looney Tunes was among the greatest honors of his life. In addition to his incredible talent, Eric was a treasured part of our animation family. Our hearts go out to his loved ones,” a joint statement of Channing Dungey (Chairman, Warner Bros. Television Group and US Networks) and Bill Damaschke (President & Chief Creative Officer, Warner Bros. Pictures Animation) read.
“He was a prodigiously talented voice actor, born in Canada of Filipino parentage. He said during an interview that his “favourite thing about inheriting Bugs Bunny was to bring back the unhinged quality that Mel Blanc brought” to the characters and to their respective personalities,” the actor’s bio reads.
Over the course of two and a half decades, Bauza managed to amass an impressive tally of more than 420 credits as a voice actor on numerous animations and video games, the report also said.
A graduate (in 2000) from the Radio, Television, and Film Program at the Centennial College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Bauza specialised in the technical side of production, but did initially pursue drama studies.
He started as an intern at the Los Angeles-based animation studio Spümcø, Inc. He worked his way up from production assistant to getting his first big break voicing the character of Stimpy for a Ren & Stimpy cartoon.
His numerous impersonations landed him voice acting jobs as Woody Woodpecker (for Universal), Disney’s Joe Carioca and Scrooge McDuck, Fozzie Bear, Professor Bunsen and Statler for Jim Henson’s animated Muppet Babies (2018) and the hero for the TV series (and spin-off film) The Adventures of Puss in Boots (2015).
Bauza had also worked as a layout artist, production manager and director, as well as occasionally sidelining as a stand-up comedian and talk show host.
In 2022, Eric won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program for playing Bugs Bunny/Marvin the Martian/Daffy Duck and Tweety in Looney Tunes Cartoons (2019), becaming the second Canadian actor to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program since Jay Baruchel.