No matter who you are, at some point in your childhood, you have binge-watched Tom & Jerry. It was such a huge part of us growing up. Personally, as I grew up a bit, I would always wonder, whoever thought of all those gags must have been a genius.
Well, that genius was Oscar-winning illustrator Gene Deitch who passed away on the 16th of April, 2020 at the age of 95.
According to Unilad, Gene passed away in his apartment in Prague on Thursday. However, the cause of his death couldn’t be confirmed yet. His publisher, Petr Himmel, confirmed the news, saying Gene died ‘unexpectedly’.
During his long and illustrated career, Gene worked as creative director at of Terrytoons, under 20th Century Fox, where he created characters like Sidney the Elephant, Gaston Le Crayon, Clint Clobber and Terr’ble Thompson.
He produced a number of Popeye cartoons in the 60s, as well as a dozen Tom and Jerry cartoons for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which will live as his greatest creation.
It almost feels like this year has already taken everything from us and then some. And now this, our childhood! R.I.P legend!