Eric Bauza, the modern voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, has died at 46.

Eric Bauza, the voice actor whose performances of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and many other characters made him the modern voice of Looney Tunes, has died. He was 46.

Bauza died suddenly late Sunday, Oct. 25, his family said in a statement posted to his Instagram account, AP reported. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner reported that he died at his home of hypertensive cardiovascular disease, according to AP.

The job. Taking over voices that Mel Blanc made famous is one of the hardest assignments in animation. Bauza channeled Blanc faithfully, AP reported. “Mel Blanc is like the voice of God for me,” he told The New York Times last year.

The career. Beginning in 2001, Bauza built more than 400 voice acting credits, according to AP. He won three Children’s and Family Emmy Awards, from 2022 to 2025. His Looney Tunes roles also included Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Marvin the Martian and Tweety, NBC News reported.

The start. Bauza was raised in Scarborough, Ontario, by Filipino immigrant parents, and found his passion for voice acting as a teenager, AP reported.

A first. He told NBC News in 2021 that he was the first person of color to voice Bugs Bunny in the Looney Tunes cartoons, and that it brought a wave of encouragement from the Asian American community.

The tribute. His family’s statement called him the “modern voice of iconic ‘Looney Tunes’ characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, along with dozens of other beloved cartoon characters,” NBC News reported.

The roles. He voiced some of the biggest characters in the 2021 film “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” appeared in the 2023 “Super Mario Bros. Movie” and voiced Wile E. Coyote in this year’s “Coyote vs. Acme,” NBC News reported. “Looney Tunes transcends all languages and all cultures,” he told NBC News in 2021.

The tributes. “His sudden passing is a shock to all of us, and he will be deeply missed,” his manager, Judy Coppage, told NBC News.

Why it matters. For a generation of kids, Bauza was the voice of characters their parents and grandparents grew up with. He kept those voices alive in new shows and films for more than two decades.