Bud Luckey, a longtime animator for Pixar and creator of one of the most iconic animated characters, has died.
Luckey's son, Andy, told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday his father died Saturday at a Newtown, Connecticut, hospice after an extended illness. He was 83.
"Bud Luckey is one of the true unsung heroes of animation," Pixar and Disney animation chief John Lasseter has said, according to THR. "Bud helped design most of the films we've made from 'Toy Story' (in 1995) onward. He was the fifth animator hired here at Pixar."
The Oscar-nominated animator is credited with coming up with Sheriff Woody’s cowboy design on “Toy Story.”
More than 200 iterations of Woody were conceptualized, including a ventriloquist dummy, before Luckey decided on a pull-string rag doll, according to The AV Club.
“I thought a cowboy would be more interesting working with a spaceman,” Luckey said in a 2005 featurette on the 10th anniversary edition DVD of the film.
Luckey also created counting cartoons for "Sesame Street."
Luckey retired from animating in 2008, but voiced several Pixar characters until 2014.
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