Jaclyn Linetsky, the English voice of Caillou in the animated series produced by CINAR, died at the age of 17 on September 8, 2003, in a fatal automobile crash in Montreal.

"Jaclyn's voice enchanted thousands of children and viewers and she brought her own special personality and character to Caillou,” said CINAR president/ceo Stuart Snyder. “She was a very talented performer and will be deeply missed by us all."

Animation talent and instructor extraordinaire Jules Engel passed away Sept. 6, 2003 in Simi Valley, California at the age of 94. He had experienced complications from a recent fall.

With him at his death, former student and colleague (and marvelous animator/instructor in her own right), USC Animation's Christine Panushka, said, “My heart is heavy with the news that Jules passed today [Sept. 6] at 5:15 pm, at a Simi Valley Hospice. The end was peaceful and Jane Ann Dill was at his side as he slipped away.

ZODIAC MEDIA founder/president H. Paul Gill died suddenly of heart failure while playig basketball on June 25, 2003 at the age of 28 in Toronto, Canada.

Kelly O'Brien, former Ottawa Festival director in the '70s and 80s, died May 5, 2003, at age 50 at her home in Beaches, near Toronto in Canada. According to a report in the TORONTO STAR, she suffered from liver disease, but autopsy results were inconclusive, so the matter is still under police investigation.

Veteran Hollywood screenwriter Maurice Rapf who wrote DISNEY'S SONG OF THE SOUTH and co-founded the Writers Guild of America (WGA), died April 15, 2003 at the age of 88 in Hanover, New Hampshire. Rapf was the son of Harry Rapf, one of the MGM Studio pioneers. He appeared briefly as a child actor. While attending Dartmouth College he went on a summer trip to the USSR in 1934. He became active in politics and attended Communist Party functions. Rapf became a Hollywood writer of live-action features and later helped found the WGA.

David Brown, co-founder and ceo of Blue Sky Studios, passed away April 11, 2003 at the age of 64 in Westchester County, New York. Brown, joined MAGI SynthaVision to lead the newly opened New York sales and production facility. As the industry downsized in the late '80s he helped co-found Blue Sky Productions (later renamed Blue Sky Studios), in White Plains, New York in 1987. In the early years he concentrated on developing an animation language built around ray tracing mathematics. Blue Sky focused on photo realism and character animation.

Cecile de Brunhoff, the lady who invented the story of the little elephant, BABAR, in 1931 to tell her boys as a bedtime story, has died of a stroke at the age of 99 in Paris on April 7, 2003, it was reported by the LOS ANGELES TIMES. Her husband, painter Jean de Brunhoff illustrated the story, actually named the elephant and created Celestre, Sephir and the Old Lady who takes care of young Barbar after his mother is killed.

Margaret Hale, one of the founding members of ASIFA-SF who ran ink-and-paint departments for more than 20 years, died of a heart attack at the age of 76 on February 16, 2003 at her home in Jacksonville, Oregon. Born and educated in England, she met her husband Jeff Hale when they were students at the Royal Academy of Art. They soon moved to Canada to work in animation and then moved to the U.S. in 1964 to work for Imagination, Inc. in San Francisco, California, which they ultimately owned. The company was known for its commercials and work for SEASAME STREET.

Cartoonist Bill Mauldin died of respiratory failure at a nursing home in Newport Beach where he had lived since mid-2001 while battling Alzheimer's disease. He was awarded in 1944 for his World War II cartoon G.I.’s, Willie and Joe, and again in 1959 for providing his visual commentary on Boris Pasternak’s treatment by the Soviets.

Artist Al Hirschfeld, one of the best known caricaturists in history, died in his sleep at his home in New York City on January 20, 2003. He was 99. Best known for his witty caricatures of actors and personalities, Hirschfeld's drawings also provided the inspiration for the "Rhapsody in Blue" segment of FANTASIA 2000. Directed by Eric Goldberg, the segment evoked New York in the 1930s. Hirschfeld, whose life was detailed in the 1996 documentary, THE LINE KING, was also well known in the American theater community.