Veteran animator and director Rudy Larriva passed away on Feb. 19th in Irvine, CA, reports VARIETY.

Chinese animator Te Wei died of respiratory failure at the age of 95 in Shanghai, according to WIKINEWS.

Big Cartoon Database reports that Emmy-winning Hanna-Barbera writer Barry Blitzer has passed away on January 27 in Santa Monica, California due to complications from abdominal surgery.

Art Clokey, the man behind Gumby, has died, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

David Levine, a painter and illustrator who drew caricatures of intellectuals, athletes, politicians and others for THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS for nearly half a century, has died, according to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

A variety of news outlets, including TMZ reported that actress Brittany Murphy died early Sunday morning after going into full cardiac arrest. She was declared dead on arrival after being rushed to Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. A cause of death has not been determined.

Roy Edward Disney, son of Disney Studios co-founder Roy O. Disney, and nephew of Walt Disney, passed away today (12/16/09) at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California, following a year-long battle with stomach cancer.

More sneak preview footage from James Cameron's 3-D epic, AVATAR, will screen at the 2009 Tokyo Film Festival.

Graphic designer Heinz Edelmann, known best for his work art directing the Beatles' YELLOW SUBMARINE in 1968, has died at the age of 75, reports the AP.

Edelmann died Tuesday afternoon in a Stuttgart, Germany hospital according to a spokesperson for the city's State Academy of Art and Design. No cause of death was announced.

Edelmann also designed book covers, including the first German edition of J.R.R. Tolkien's LORD OF THE RINGS and won a competition in 1989 to design the mascot of Seville's Expo '92 world fair.

Voice actor Dallas McKennon died Monday at the age of 89, just days shy of his 90th birthday.

His friend and mentee, Eugene Hamm, wrote an obituary for McKennon: