One of the kicks of welcoming Eric Bauza as a guest on brioux.tv: the podcast in 2022 was being able to talk to Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Marvin the Martian, Sylvester and Tweety and many other classic Warner Bros. cartoon stars all in the same person. That he was born and raised in the east end Toronto suburb of Scarborough, Ont., only added to the pride and joy.
Very sad, therefore, to report that Bauza passed away at his home from hypertensive heart disease on October 26 in Los Angeles. He was 46.
On the podcast, we talked about how he grew up watching the Canadian children’s show Mr. Dressup and how he would draw along with host Ernie Coombs. Bauza was raised on the classics, watching Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies on TV and videotape with his dad and grandfather.
Bauza attended Toronto’s Cardinal Newman High School and graduated from Centennial College’s Radio, Television, and Film Program in 2000.
He got his start in the drawing end of the animation business, working on fellow Canadian John Kricfalosi’s short-lived The Ripping Friends (seen later on Adult Swim and Teletoon). That macho mocking superhero spoof led to more voice work on a Ren & Stimpy spinoff Adult Party Cartoon.
More Adult Swim-style series followed. Bauza’s first job voicing a classic Warner Bros character was as Marvin the Martian. The big budget reboot of Looney Tunes Cartoons on Warners’ owned HBO is where he began perfecting Bugs, Daffy, and many of the voices his dad and grandfather enjoyed watching when they were young.
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Bauza remained indebted to voice artists who went before. On the podcast, he talked with reverence about meeting a few of his voice over heroes, including cartoon legend June Foray (Rocky & Bullwinkle; Looney Tunes) and fellow Canadian Maurice LaMarche (Pinky and the Brain).
I spoke with Bauza in 2022 over zoom for the podcast and also in person in Toronto at the CBC Gem launch of Stay Tooned, a six-part documentary. That series placed Bauza in conversation with several of his ‘toon talk peers, including Ben Schwartz, Lake Bell, Ken Jeong, Bobby Moynihan, Tara Strong, Lamorne Morris, Cree Summer, and James Adomian, among others.
Bauza was as colourful in person as his voices, often decked out in hoodies and hats featuring classic animated icons. Besides the Warners characters, he also recorded the voice of Woody Woodpecker, Walter Lantz’s disturbingly unhinged bird. That was another ‘toon staple of the ‘40s originally voiced by the great Mel Blanc and later, in the early TV era, by Lantz’s wife Grace Stafford.
I thought Bauza’s Bugs and Daffy were dead on compared to the Blanc originals, and was cheered to hear him speak for those characters and others a month or so ago at a Drive-In screening of “Coyote vs ACME.”
Bauza told me when we did the podcast that his then five-year-old son could tell his Bugs from that of Mel Blanc. Sad that his family has lost such a colourful storyteller; oh how those bedtime stories must have sounded.
You can hear Bauza and marvel at his many voices at the brioux.tv link below. Condolences to all of his family and friends on the passing of one so young who brought a smile to so many.
