Edwin Aguilar, who spent more than two decades serving as an animator and assistant director on The Simpsons, has died. He was 46.
Aguilar died Saturday in a Los Angeles hospital after suffering a stroke, according to a recent post on a GoFundMe page that had been set up to help his family with medical expenses.
On Twitter, Simpsons producer Matt Selman called Aguilar “a talented artist and beloved fountain of love and inspiration to all.”
Born in El Salvador, Aguilar immigrated to the U.S. with one of his brothers in 1982 to join other family members in Los Angeles, and he studied illustration at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.
After starting out as an animation assistant at Graz Entertainment, home to such cartoons as Transformers and G.I. Joe, he worked for Hanna-Barbera and then for the legendary Chuck Jones at Warner Bros.
“In my first lunch with Chuck Jones I told him that as a kid in El Salvador I drew pictures of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, showing them inside the bottle tops of the soda pop bottles I collected,” he said in an undated interview.
Aguilar joined The Simpsons in 1999 and worked as an animator, character layout artist, storyboard revisionist, assistant director, and more. He chipped in on the 2007 Simpsons feature as well.
Survivors include his wife, Marike, and children, Jonathon, Maya and Bodhi.
Rhett Bartlett contributed to this report.
