Eric Bauza, the voice of Fozzie Bear in Disney Junior’s “Muppet Babies” and the Beagle Boys in the 2017 “DuckTales” reboot, has died at 46. His family announced the news Sunday on his Instagram account, calling it sudden and saying more details would follow. No cause of death has been given.
Bauza was best known as the modern voice of the Looney Tunes, carrying Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Marvin the Martian, Tweety and Pepé Le Pew after Mel Blanc, and he won the first ever Children’s and Family Emmy for voice performance for “Looney Tunes Cartoons.” But for a generation of Disney Junior kids he was also the big-hearted bear in a hat who told terrible jokes.
A Long Disney Résumé
Disney’s own press bio for Bauza lists Fozzie in “Muppet Babies,” Reggie in “Kiff,” and Harry, Sniff and Lloyd in “Pupstruction,” the all-dog construction series that premiered on Disney Junior and Disney+ in 2023. Harry is the dad on the show, and Bauza once described the part as basically his regular speaking voice with a little more warmth.
His Disney work ran much deeper than the preschool slate. He voiced the Beagle Boys in “DuckTales,” José Carioca in “Legend of the Three Caballeros,” Fenton Crackshell in the “DuckTales: Remastered” video game, and turned up in “Phineas and Ferb,” “Gravity Falls,” “Star vs. the Forces of Evil,” “Amphibia,” “The Owl House” and “Hamster & Gretel.” On the Marvel side he played Amadeus Cho in “Ultimate Spider-Man,” Adam Warlock in “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the Sentinels in “X-Men ’97.” For Lucasfilm he was Luke Skywalker in “LEGO Star Wars: Droid Tales,” “The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special” and “LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales.”
The Donald Duck Moment At The Emmys
Disney fans got one last reminder of his range just last month. Bauza was a presenter at the Creative Arts Emmys on September 6, and when Julie Andrews won the character voice-over award for “Bridgerton” without being in the room, he accepted it on her behalf and delivered the speech as Donald Duck. We covered that weekend in our look at Disney’s 125 nominations and ten wins. The Television Academy posted the acceptance:
From Layout Artist To Bugs Bunny
Born in Scarborough, Ontario, on December 7, 1979, Bauza started in animation as an intern at Spümcø and worked as a layout and character artist before the voice work took over. His other credits included Puss in Boots in “The Adventures of Puss in Boots,” which earned him Emmy and Annie nominations, Stimpy in the “Ren & Stimpy” revival, Woody Woodpecker, and the Toad General, Diddy Kong, Koopa Troopas and Dry Bones in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.” He returned as the Toad General in this year’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”
This year he spent more time in front of cameras than usual, doing press for the revived “Coyote vs. Acme” after a career of being heard far more often than seen. Tributes from fellow voice actors and animators began within minutes of the family’s post.
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