Bud Luckey Dies: The ‘Toy Story’ Character Designer, ‘Sesame Street’ Animator Was 83
Bud Luckey, the man who created the now iconic design for Woody on Toy Story, died on Saturday. His son, Andy Luckey made the announcement via Facebook. He was 83.
Luckey was a multi-talented animator, voice actor, and designer. In addition to being credited with creating Woody, he provided the voice of Agent Rick Dicker in The Incredibles and the mysterious and woeful Chuckles the Clown in Toy Story 3. He also provided the voice of Eeyore in the 2011 animated Winnie the Pooh feature and the series. He also received an Oscar nomination in 2004 for the animated short Boundin’, where he provided the voice for the Jackalope. Early in his career, he created cartoons and songs with lyricist Donald Hadley for Sesame Street including the memorable “The Lady Bug Picnic” which showcased the number 12.
“He’ll be deeply missed by his friends, family and colleagues to whom he was just ‘Bud’,” his son wrote on Facebook. “His kind and easy going demeanor led his Pixar colleagues to dub him ‘Bud Low-Key.'”
Born on July 28, 1934, in Billings, Montana. He served in the U.S. Airforce during the Korean War. Afterwards, he attended Chouinard Art Institute — which would later merge with California Academy of Music to become California Institute of the Arts (a.k.a. Cal Arts). He went on to train at USC with Disney vet Art Babbitt.
He went on to work for The Alvin Show in 1961 and an animated pilot for a Mad magazine TV special. His other credits include the 1977 animated feature The Mouse and His Child. His star continued to rise as he would go on to work on major Pixar features including A Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc., Cars, and Ratatouille.
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