TORONTO – Who hasn’t, at least once, put on their best Bugs Bunny voice and had a go at saying “What’s up, Doc?”
It’s something Eric Bauza loved to do as a kid growing up in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. 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.”
Bauza, who died suddenly on Sunday at the age of 46, often said he grew up watching Looney Tunes reruns on Saturday mornings. He also loved Mr. Dressup.
“He told me in an interview not long ago that Mr. Dressup, when he was a kid, was his favourite show because it gave him permission to be creative and to make voices and act,” Crouse said.
“Certainly, Canada was a breeding ground for his love of animation and his love of these characters,” he added. “And it’s that love, I think, that made his work really special.”
By high school, Bauza was doing the morning announcements in the voice of Homer Simpson. After graduating from Toronto’s Centennial College, he got his start as an animator before moving into the recording booth.
He went on to build a career spanning dozens of animated series, films and video games, voicing everyone from Marvin the Martian and Woody Woodpecker to Baby Fozzie on “Muppet Babies.”
“Eric Bauza was one of the most in-demand voice actors in Hollywood,” said Crouse.
In 2018, Bauza auditioned for Bugs Bunny in a new series, “Looney Tunes Cartoons,” bringing carrots with him and munching them as he read for the part. He got the role and went on to voice Bugs, Daffy, Tweety and a host of other Looney Tunes characters.
Bauza was one of only a handful of performers to inherit the voices created by Mel Blanc, following in the footsteps of voice actors Jeff Bergman and the late Joe Alaskey.
“It is rarefied air that he was breathing while he was in that role,” Crouse said.
His work earned him three Children’s and Family Emmy Awards. The first, in 2022, was the first-ever award in its category, Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program, for his work as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Marvin the Martian. He paid tribute to Mel Blanc in his acceptance speech.
Bauza never lost touch with home. With high school friend Steve Gaskin, he co-founded Retrokid, a clothing brand that celebrated the Canadian pop culture he grew up with, with t-shirts featuring Mr. Dressup, The Raccoons and Inspector Gadget.
Earlier this year, shortly before the release of the movie “Coyote vs. Acme,” Bauza reflected on his place in Looney Tunes history in an interview with The Associated Press.
“The Looney Tunes were here before I was born and they’re definitely going to be here long after I leave this realm,” said Bauza. “But to know that I got to be a part of something as grand as this is remarkable.”
His death appears to have come without warning. The day before he died, Bauza spoke on a panel at Lightbox Expo in Pasadena, Calif. Crouse noted he was posting on Instagram on Saturday and had events booked for this week. The Los Angeles County medical examiner listed his cause of death as hypertensive cardiovascular disease.
“He was not only a really gifted performer, but a really nice person as well,” Crouse said. “So being taken at the age of 46 really is very sad.”
