Eric Bauza, the voice artist who inherited Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and a roster of other Looney Tunes characters from Mel Blanc's original recordings, has died suddenly at his home at the age of 46, his family said.
A statement from Bauza's family posted to Instagram said he died "suddenly" on Sunday. Variety reported the cause of death as hypertensive cardiovascular disease. Bauza, who was born in Ontario, Canada, and was of Filipino descent, had voiced characters in this summer's animated hit Coyote vs. Acme and appeared in the recent release Forgotten Island.
From childhood fan to the voice of a legacy
Bauza grew up idolizing the Looney Tunes characters he would later voice professionally, telling NBC News in a 2021 interview that he used to copy their voices as a child. "Looney Tunes transcends all languages and all cultures," he said. "It doesn't matter what part of the planet you're from. You get the comedy." He went on to voice Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd and Foghorn Leghorn in 2021's Space Jam: A New Legacy, reprising those roles — along with Road Runner — in Coyote vs. Acme. He also played Toad General in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and its sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, this year's fifth-highest-grossing film internationally.
Carrying Mel Blanc's legacy
Between 2022 and 2025, Bauza won three Emmy Awards for outstanding voice performance across a number of television series, cementing his place as the primary custodian of some of American animation's most recognizable voices since Blanc, the original performer behind Bugs Bunny and much of the Looney Tunes cast, died in 1989. "Eric Bauza was a unique voice talent who brought joy and laughter to millions around the world," said Channing Dungey, chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group and U.S. Networks, in a statement reported by the Hollywood Reporter. "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."
A career built on range
Beyond Looney Tunes, Bauza was known in the animation industry for an unusually wide vocal range that let him move between gruff, cartoonish characters and more grounded roles across film, television and video games. His death leaves an immediate question for Warner Bros. over who will carry forward characters that have now passed between only a handful of performers across nearly nine decades — a lineage that began with Blanc in the 1930s and that Bauza himself treated as a responsibility as much as a job.
Tributes continued to arrive from colleagues and fans through the weekend, many citing the same quality that defined his approach to the work: an evident love, rather than mere imitation, for characters that have entertained multiple generations of audiences worldwide.
