by Rollin Bishop

As you likely know by now, Eric Bauza, famously the modern voice of animated icons Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, and so many more characters, died earlier this week of hypertensive cardiovascular disease. He was 46.

Despite covering animation professionally and in my spare time, I never spoke with Bauza, at least not directly. The closest I ever came was being in the tiny room, just a couple of rows back, for the SDCC 2025 panel celebrating Titmouse where he was a panelist. There'd been technical troubles, delaying the start, and Bauza had to leave before it was over. Mostly, I recall being a bit awestruck to be so close.

Because while I'd never spoken with Bauza — and, unfortunately, now never will — he'd spoken to me plenty of times in plenty of guises. If you watch any kind of animation at all, even if you're not familiar with his name, chances are good that you're familiar with his work. His IMDB page is, to be frank, massive with credits in everything from the recently released Avatar: Seven Havens to Chowder to Adventure Time and beyond.

I was, however, able to get a sense of just how incredible a performer Bauza was while he was still alive from those that would know. As part of a never-before-published interview with The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie director Pete Browngardt from Fall 2024, immediately following its screening at the Animation Is Film Festival that October, I couldn't help but ask about Bauza's incredible performance as both Daffy Duck and Porky Pig in the film.

"He's amazing," Browngardt told me. "He's a one-of-a-kind talent, Eric. Directing him, with the film, I would pitch him the storyboard, and we have lines written out. We wrote the movie in a script, but also a lot of movies is written in the storyboard form, so I like to pitch it, because it changes from the script vastly. And that's why we have so many writers, because I gave storyboard artists writer credit."

"He would do a pass where he'd do Porky first, and then he would do Daffy, because Daffy, it's a little bit more taxing on his vocal chords," Browngardt said. "But the most amazing thing about Eric was that, like, he could remember what he did when he did the next pass. So he would do Porky, then do Daffy. And I'm like, 'Man, I hope this cuts together.' We couldn't cut together live, because we only have certain block times to record."

"Every time I got to the edit room, and he doesn't do a huge amount of takes — three, four takes, maybe, and it always cut together," Browngardt added. "So it's like, he had in his head the performance. And really just hats off to his talent there. To be able to do your homework. He's also just a student of Mel Blanc; I think he's the best since Mel Blanc. I think he's fantastic. Just so cool to see him do it."

If this sounds at all hyperbolic, please understand: it's not. Just to take The Day the Earth Blew Up as one example, in a very real way, Bauza spends about an hour and a half talking to himself. But it's hard to just pick just one highlight to show off Bauza's range and ability, so, well, I won't pick just one.

We don't make a habit out of doing obituaries here at re:frame, but we did recently feel the need to commemorate both Tim Curry and Peter Cullen. How can you not? And with Patrick Stewart this week too? Sometimes, a little reflection is necessary.

But Bauza is different. The one thing that Curry and Cullen and Stewart all have in common? Long lives and full careers. At 46, there was always an underlying impression that Bauza was only really just getting started despite decades of voicing characters. There was no reason at all to think there'd be anything less than that. In my heart, I'd been prepared to have my children grow up with his performances, and to then in all likelihood induct their own children.

What a loss for us all.