If you grew up on Saturday-morning cartoons, or you’ve watched a kid lose it laughing at “Bugs Bunny Builders,” there’s a good chance Eric Bauza was the voice in the room.
Bauza, the Emmy-winning voice actor who carried Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and other Looney Tunes characters into a new era, has died at 46. His family announced on Sunday, Oct. 25, in a post on his Instagram, that he “has passed away suddenly” (as reported by Parade and Forbes).
From Scarborough to Looney Tunes
Bauza was born Dec. 7, 1979, in Scarborough, Ontario, and his first credit was the Canadian animated series “The Ripping Friends” in the early 2000s, Forbes reported. He became an official Looney Tunes voice actor in 2020. He shared Bugs Bunny with Jeff Bergman and also voiced Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety and Marvin the Martian, along with Woody Woodpecker, Parade reported.
Outside of Looney Tunes, he voiced Puss in Boots in “The Adventures of Puss in Boots” and Baby Fozzie in “Muppet Babies.” Parade, citing Behind the Voice Actors, counted 935 voice roles across 249 titles.
In 2022, Bauza won the first-ever Children’s and Family Emmy for Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program, for “Looney Tunes Cartoons.” He won again in 2023 for “Bugs Bunny Builders” and later for “Teen Titans Go!” [VERIFY year: 2024 vs. 2025].
Channing Dungey, chairwoman of Warner Bros. Television Group, said in a statement to Variety that Bauza “brought joy and laughter to millions around the world,” Hello! reported. Fellow voice actor Josh Keaton called him a “phenomenally talented artist.”
Taking over voices that Mel Blanc made famous is one of the hardest jobs in animation. Bauza’s gift was making Bugs and Daffy sound like themselves to grandparents and brand new to their grandkids at the same time.
That’s all, folks.
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