Joe Alaskey, the iconic voice behind "Looney Tunes" voices like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester and Marvin the Martian has passed away at the age of 63 from cancer. The voice actor died on Wednesday, Feb. 3, in Los Angeles his family announced, according to TMZ.
A native of New York, Alaskey big break came when he was hired in the late 1980's by Warner Bros. to voice the beloved characters after legendary impressionist Mel Blanc passed away in 1989. The actor won an Emmy in 2004 thanks to his portrayal of Daffy the Duck on Cartoon Network's "Duck Dodgers."
While Alaskey was mostly known for his voicing the "Looney Tunes" characters, he also provided the voice of Grandpa Lou Pickles on "Rugrats," and the ghost Stinkie from "Casper." The actor lent his voice to other notable cartoons like "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper," "Hey Arnold!" and "Extreme Ghostbusters." Alaskey also specialized in real-life impressions and voiced President Richard Nixon in the Tom Hanks film Forrest Gump, according to Us Weekly.
Longtime friend and television writer Mark Evanier paid tribute to Alaskey on his blog.
"I was delighted to know Joe for many years, to have him on several of my Cartoon Voices panels at Comic-Con, and to work with him in 2014 on The Garfield Show," Evanier wrote.
"The only problem we had was that Joe had so many different voices that it was sometimes difficult to choose which one we wanted out of him," Evanier continued. "The one I liked best was when he sounded like Joe Alaskey. He had a long, long list of voices but that's the one I will miss the most."
