Longtime Disney artist John Hench passed away on Feb. 5, 2004 after suffering heart failure after a brief illness and hospitalization at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. He was 95 years old.

CAPTAIN KANGAROO host Bob Keeshan died in Montpelier, Vermont on Jan. 23, 2004, reports CNN. He was 76 and had been suffering from a long illness. Keeshan hosted the CBS children's show from 1955 to 1985. The classic UPA TOM TERRIFIC series, created by Gene Deitch, was created specifically to air on CAPTAIN KANGAROO. He started working in entertainment as a NBC page during high school. For five years, he played the silent Clarabell the Clown on THE HOWDY DOODY SHOW.

Veteran MAD magazine illustrator George Woodbridge has passed away, reported the ASSOCIATED PRESS. He died of emphysema on Jan. 20, 2004 at the age of 73. Starting as a freelance artist for MAD in 1957, Woodbridge was best known for his detailed pen-and-ink drawings. A perfectionist when it came to authenticity, he also contributed drawings for military history books, including the three-volume, AMERICAN MILITARY EQUIPAGE, 1851-1872.

Robert F. Enrietto, Jr., former production manager, assistant director, producer and, most recently, administrator of Columbia College Chicago’s “Semester in L.A.” program, died of a heart attack during the holiday break (Dec. 27, 2003) while vacationing in Chicago. He was 62.

Guy Hudson, who worked on the visual effects for such notable projects as ALIEN, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, JURASSIC PARK and the DINOTOPIA TV series, passed away suddenly on Dec. 24, 2003 from a brain hemorrhage. He was 45 years old.

Hudson first came to Northern California in 1987 to work for Chris Walas Inc. Since then he has worked for such facilities as Disney, Henson Prods., Industrial Light & Magic and Western Images.

Wah Ming Chang, an Academy Award-winning animator and artist, died Dec. 22, 2003 in Carmel, California at the age of 86.

Some of his more notable works include a stop-motion animation production of THE THREE BEARS. Chang created posable wooden models of PINOCCHIO and BAMBI so that Disney animators could study body movements. He also contributed to BOZO THE CLOWN, TOM THUMB, THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM and THE SEVEN FACES OF DR. LAO, reported Associated Press.

G.A. Menon, chairman of Toonz Animation India (Technopark, Trivandrum, India), died on Dec. 2, 2003 at the age of 72 of a heart attack he suffered on a Los Angeles–bound flight from Singapore.

A native of Kerala, Menon’s career spanned more than 40 years in the global electronics business. He began his career at a statistician in the Thackersey Mooljee Group of textile mills in Bombay. Upon receiving his M.B.A. from Harvard, he held various managerial positions at IBM for 15 years.

TV Industry vet Linda Mancuso, svp, head of programming, ABC Family Channel, died Dec. 7, 2003 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles after a seven-year battle with cancer at the age of 44.

“Linda made so many contributions to our industry. Her love of the creative process, talent and her team, were inspiring to everyone who came in contact with her,” said Anne Sweeney, president, ABC Cable Networks Group and Disney Channel Worldwide. “We will remember her warmth, humor and generosity of spirit forever.”

Stage and voice actor Harry Goz passed away Sept. 6, 2003 at the age of 71 of cancer at a hospital in Manhasset, New York. Goz was the voice of Captain Murphy in the popular Adult Swim series SEALAB 2021, which airs on Cartoon Network

The co-creators of SEALAB 2021, Adam Reed and Matt Thompson, said in a statement, “We are devastated by the loss of our good friend, Harry Goz. Working with him was always sheer joy, and his talent was beyond compare. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, and we shall all miss him dearly.”

Jonathan Brandis, who landed numerous roles as a child actor in television, commercials and film, including THE NEVERENDING STORY 2: THE NEXT CHAPTER, SEAQUEST DSV and was the voice of Mozenrath on DISNEY’S ALADDIN TV series (1993), took his own life at the age of 27 and died Nov. 12, 2003 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.