Eric Bauza, the Canadian voice behind Bugs Bunny, has died at age 46

Eric Bauza, the Canadian actor who was the voice of such Looney Tunes characters as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, has died at the age of age 46, according to his family.

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In posts to social media, Bauza’s family wrote that the “Emmy Award-winning voice actor and the modern voice of iconic Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, along with dozens of other beloved cartoon characters, has passed away suddenly.”

Bauza’s page on the entertainment database imdb.com lists more than 400 credits stretching back to the early 2000s and including work on TV’s Phineas and Ferb, Dora the Explorer, Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles, and numerous movies and video games.

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His most recent work included this summer’s Coyote vs. Acme, where he voiced Bugs, Daffy, Elmer Fudd, Foghorn Leghorn, Porky Pig, Road Runner, Tweety and more.

His many awards included Emmys for his works on Looney Tunes Cartoons (2022), Bugs Bunny Builders (2023) and Teen Titans Go! (2025). He is listed in the credits for an upcoming TV movie Bye Bye Bunny: A Looney Tunes Musical, still in production.

Media reports say he passed away Sunday from hypertensive cardiovascular disease, a group of conditions caused by long-term high blood pressure.

National Post spoke to Bauza in 2021 for the release of Space Jam: A New Legacy. He said he’d been a fan of Looney Tunes cartoons since he was a boy, and the he’d loved the original Space Jam movie in 1992. “And I can tell you right now I’m a kid in a candy store,” he said of starring in the sequel.

Born in Scarborough, Ont., on the outskirts of Toronto in 1979, Bauza attended Cardinal Newman High School (now St. John Henry Newman).

“School cafeteria was my Greek theatre, the forum, that’s where I held court,” he told the Post. “They made the mistake — or maybe the right trajectory — of allowing me to do the morning announcement. Me behind the microphone in high school. You can imagine. It was a field day.”

He graduated from the radio, TV and film program of Toronto’s Centennial College in 2000 and later moved to the U.S.

He said the enjoyed the relative anonymity of being a voice actor — “I could go to the grocery store and no one will bother me” — but added that there were times when being able to sound like a cartoon could be a bonus.

“Being able to do Daffy Duck at U.S. Customs at the airport will get you through in under two minutes,” he said, using the voice as he spoke. “They just listen to this voice and they stamp that passport and you’re off to the races. They go from these tough-as-nails guardians of the nation to these six-year-old kids asking if I can do a voicemail for them.”

Bauza was just the latest voice actor to take over from the late Mel Blanc, nicknamed The Man of a Thousand Voices, who originated Bugs, Daffy, Porky and others, and who died in 1989.

“Daffy for me has always been the favourite of the bunch,” Bauza said when asked for his favourite character. “He is definitely the guy that just tries so hard and always fails. I think that’s like everyone on Earth.”

The day before his death, Bauza shared a photo of himself with The Simpsons director David Silverman at the annual LightBox Expo event in California.

In a statement reported by the Hollywood Reporter, Channing Dungey, chairman of Warner Bros. Television Group and US Networks, said: “Eric Bauza was a unique voice talent who brought joy and laughter to millions around the world. 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.”

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