Eric Bauza, the Emmy-winning voice actor who became the modern voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and nearly the whole Looney Tunes troupe, has died at the age of 46. His family announced his death on Sunday, October 25, 2026, in a statement shared on his Instagram account, saying he had passed away suddenly. Records from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner, as reported by Variety and People, list the cause of death as hypertensive cardiovascular disease, and report that he died at his home in Los Angeles County on Sunday.
Eric Bauza at a convention panel. Photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons.
For a generation of cartoon fans, Bauza was not just a voice in the booth. He was the sound of Saturday mornings, streaming marathons, and movie nights — the wascally wabbit himself, the sputtering duck, the stuttering pig, and the Martian with a ray gun and a grudge against Earth. Warner Bros. Television Group chairman Channing Dungey, in a statement to the press, called him a unique voice talent who brought joy and laughter to millions around the world, and noted that carrying on the Looney Tunes legacy was among the greatest honors of his life. After 15 years at Warner Bros. Animation, Bauza had earned the right to say so.
The Announcement and the Tributes That Followed
The family's statement was brief, and deliberately so. It described Bauza as an Emmy Award-winning voice actor and the modern voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, along with dozens of other beloved cartoon characters, and said more details would come. Within hours, the tributes filled in the picture: colleagues, studios, and fans remembering a performer whose enthusiasm for animation was as famous as his range.
Dungey remembered Bauza as a treasured part of the Warner Bros. animation family, and said the studio's hearts go out to his loved ones. Coyote vs. Acme producer Chris DeFaria told Variety he would remember Bauza for an absolutely tireless dedication to the art form. His longtime manager, Judy Coppage, told NBC Los Angeles that his sudden passing was a shock, and called him a unique and versatile voice actor whose rise to become one of the most accomplished voices in animation had been rewarding and thrilling to watch.
The timing made the news harder to absorb. Just a day before his death, Bauza had posted a photo from LightBox Expo in Pasadena, posing with animator and director David Silverman, and shared footage from a New York City subway station celebrating 30 years since the release of the original Space Jam. He was, by every account, still in the middle of his work — still showing up, still celebrating the cartoons that made him.
A Fan Who Grew Up to Voice His Heroes
Eric Bauza was born on December 7, 1979, in Scarborough, a district of Toronto, Canada, and was of Filipino descent. His father and grandfather were fans of classic cartoons, and the Looney Tunes shorts became part of the bond between them. As a teenager in the 1990s, Bauza mimicked the voices of his favorite characters, teaching himself the rhythms of Bugs, Daffy, and the rest long before anyone paid him to do it.
He graduated from Centennial College in 2000, in its Radio, Television, and Film program, and had already interned at Spümcø, the animation house behind Ren & Stimpy, working at first on the drawing side rather than the voicing side. His career in front of the microphone began in 2001 with The Ripping Friends, and his breakthrough came in 2003, when he took over the role of Stimpy in Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon," succeeding Billy West. It set the pattern for much of what followed: Bauza had a rare gift for stepping into established characters and making the transition feel seamless.
Through the 2000s and early 2010s, he built one of the busiest résumés in animation, lending his voice to Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Fairly OddParents, Scooby-Doo, Ben 10, Chowder, and many more. But it was Marvin the Martian, in the early-2010s sitcom The Looney Tunes Show, that finally brought him inside the universe he had grown up imitating. From there, he never really left.
The Looney Tunes Years: Bugs, Daffy, and Everybody Else
Bauza became one of the modern voices of the Looney Tunes troupe around 2020, at first sharing the role of Bugs Bunny with veteran Jeff Bergman before carrying nearly the entire cast himself. When Warner Bros. launched the HBO Max revival Looney Tunes Cartoons, built to recapture the snappy, golden-era slapstick of the original shorts, Bauza stepped into the booth as Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, and Marvin the Martian, among others. He went on to voice the characters across Bugs Bunny Builders, the preschool spin-off, and Tiny Toons Looniversity, where he voiced Buster Bunny.
On the big screen, he voiced Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, and Foghorn Leghorn in 2021's Space Jam: A New Legacy, and reprised those roles — plus Road Runner, Tweety, Gossamer, and Bugs himself — in this year's Coyote vs. Acme. That film carries a special place in his story. When Warner Bros. shelved the finished movie, Bauza was one of its most outspoken champions, taking the stage at the Annie Awards in character as Daffy to demand its release. He lived to see Ketchup Entertainment rescue it and put it in theaters this year, a victory lap for a movie about an underdog who refuses to quit. He also led The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, the franchise's first fully animated feature built for the big screen.
Coyote vs. Acme key art. Bauza voiced Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety, Foghorn Leghorn, Road Runner, and Bugs Bunny in the film.
What made Bauza different from a gifted impressionist was the acting underneath the voices. Bugs Bunny is not just a funny voice; he is confidence, timing, and mischief. Daffy Duck is not just a lisp; he is insecurity dressed up as showmanship. Bauza understood both, and the dozens of characters in between, because he had studied them as a fan first. He followed in the footsteps of Mel Blanc, the original Man of a Thousand Voices, and he knew exactly how large those footsteps were.
Three Emmys and a Career That Refused to Sit Still
Bauza won three Children's & Family Emmy Awards for Outstanding Voice Performance: the first in 2022 for Looney Tunes Cartoons, the first-ever award in that category, then again in 2023 for Bugs Bunny Builders, and in 2025 for Teen Titans Go! He had also earned five Daytime Emmy nominations across Looney Tunes Cartoons, Muppet Babies, and The Adventures of Puss in Boots.
Outside the Warner Bros. lot, his range was just as wide. He voiced Puss in Boots in Netflix's The Adventures of Puss in Boots, Baby Fozzie in Disney Junior's Muppet Babies, Master Splinter in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Woody Woodpecker, along with roles in Rick and Morty, Bob's Burgers, Invincible, The Loud House, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, where he voiced the Toad General. All told, his credits ran into the hundreds across television, film, video games, and shorts — a workload that explains why so many childhoods, across so many shows, sound like him.
His Final Days and the Work Left Unfinished
At the time of his death, Bauza was still at work. He was set to voice Daffy Duck in Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical, and the Shogun King in The Dragon Masters. Whether those projects move forward, and how they honor him, is a question for the studios now; what is certain is that his final released role, in a year when Coyote vs. Acme finally reached theaters, gave audiences one more reminder of what he could do.
He is survived by his wife, Jessica, whom he married in 2016, and their young son. For fans, the loss is strange in a particular way: the characters will live on, recast as they always have been, from Blanc onward. Bugs Bunny will still say what's up, doc, and Daffy will still demand his deserving due. But for a generation that grew up with Bauza's versions, those voices now carry a goodbye inside them.
Where to Watch Eric Bauza's Best Work
The easiest place to start is Looney Tunes Cartoons, where his Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, and Marvin carry the classic short format into the streaming era, followed by Bugs Bunny Builders for younger viewers and Tiny Toons Looniversity for the next generation of Tiny Toons fans. Space Jam: A New Legacy and Coyote vs. Acme show his film work at its biggest, while The Adventures of Puss in Boots and Muppet Babies show how far beyond the Looney Tunes lot his talent reached. If you are spending Halloween weekend with the classics, Twin Towerz Entertainment's 6 horror picks to watch this October is also still on the blog for October viewing.
Bugs Bunny in Looney Tunes Cartoons, the HBO Max revival where Bauza voiced Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, and Marvin the Martian.
That is the thing about a voice actor's legacy: it does not sit on a shelf. It plays in living rooms, in cars, in the background of childhoods that are still happening. Eric Bauza spent 15 years at Warner Bros. Animation making sure Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck still sounded like themselves for a new generation, and he did it with the joy of a fan who never forgot what those characters meant to him as a kid in Scarborough, mimicking voices in his bedroom. That is a legacy worth toasting — preferably with a carrot in hand.
Which Eric Bauza performance will you revisit first — his Bugs Bunny, his Daffy Duck, or one of the dozens of characters in between? Tell us in the comments.
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