Peter Orton, founder and chairman of HIT Ent., whose properties include BOB THE BUILDER and THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE, has died following a long battle with throat cancer, reports THIS IS WILTSHIRE and THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. He was 64.

Ken Southworth, an industry veteran who animated at Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Walter Lantz, MGM, Hanna-Barbera, Clokey Prods. and Filmation, has died after suffering several strokes on Dec. 5th at his home in Anaheim. He was 89.

Southworth was born in Lancashire, England, but moved to the U.S. after receiving a scholarship to attend the Chicago Art Institute. In 1944, he started work at Disney. His credits include ALICE IN WONDERLAND, CINDERELLA and SLEEPY HOLLOW.

Cartoon Network SVP of Programming and Scheduling, Jennifer Davidson, unexpectedly died early Saturday morning, Dec. 1, 2007. The 38-year-old wife and mother died of a sudden illness. She is survived by her husband, John Davidson, and three young children, Mitchell (7), Oliver (5) and Harper (2).

In the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, a 30-year-old man died of exhaustion following a three-day Internet gaming marathon, the state media reported. Paramedics, after they were called to a cyber cafe after the man fainted, were unable to revive him. No mention was made of the game the man was playing. After the incident, nearly 100 frightened gamers left the cyber cafe.

China has one of the biggest markets for online gaming. Each year, clinics across the country treat children and teenagers for "Internet addiction."

A man shot by police in Vancouver was identified by friends as animator Paul Boyd, according to the CBC. On Monday, Aug. 13, 2007, Vancouver police responded to a 911 call at Granville and 16th Ave., where Boyd was shot after allegedly threatening officers with a potentially lethal weapon.

Aleksandr Tatarskiy, co-founder of Moscow-based Pilot Studio, passed away in his sleep of an apparent stroke over the weekend of July 21, 2007. He was 57 years old.

James Street, a voice actor for DIC's STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE series since 2004, died on July 4, 2007, after suffering injuries in a skateboarding accident close to home in Thousand Oaks, California, reports THE BIG CARTOON DATABASE. He was 13 years old.

Street's most recent voice work could be heard on TV as Pepito in MADELINE and on home video as Huckleberry Pie in STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE: BERRY BLOSSOM FESTIVAL. Street took over the role of Huckleberry in 2004's STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE: ADVENTURES ON ICE CREAM ISLAND.

David Hilberman, one of the co-founders of UPA, passed away on July 5, 2007, at Stanford Hospital in Stanford, California, due to complications from an infection, reports his son Mark. He was 96 years old.

Will Schaefer, the composer on many Hanna-Barbara series, such as THE FLINTSTONES, THE YOGI BEAR SHOW and SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU!, passed away from cancer on Saturday, June 30, 2007, in Palm Desert, California. He was 78 years old.

Schaefer also composed music for Walt Disney Studios, working on TV shows like THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY and the 1970 feature, THE ARISTOCATS, which he teamed with George Bruns.

Veteran Disney animator/filmmaker Art Stevens, who co-produced and co-directed THE FOX AND THE HOUND, and co-directed THE RESCUERS during his illustrious 44-year career at the Disney studio, passed away at the age of 92 on May 22, 2007, at his home in Studio City, California, after suffering a heart attack in his rose garden.

Eric Algren passed away unexpectedly on May 25, 2007, at the age of 32, reports the BIG CARTOON DATABASE.

His most recent work was as a Flame artist on FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER. He also served as a digital compositor on the upcoming sci-fi thriller THE INVASION, which is set for release in the U.S. on Aug. 17.

He worked for such companies as Hydraulx, Digital Domain and Creo for projects including 300, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND, AEON FLUX, LITTLE MAN, FAILURE TO LAUNCH and TITANIC. In 2000, he was an animation assistant on Disney's DINOSAUR.

Ray Erlenborn, a sound effects artist and actor, passed away from the complications of a bacterial infection on June 4, 2007, in West Hills, California, reports THE BIG CARTOON DATABASE. He was 92 years old.

Tony Award winning actor Charles Nelson Reilly has died at the age of 76, reports THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. He passed away on May 25, 2007, in Los Angeles from complications from pneumonia, reported his partner, Patrick Hughes, to the NEW YORK TIMES.

Reilly's work in animation spanned several decades. In 1975-76, he hosted Filmation's kids' series UNCLE CROC'S BLOCK, which featured such animated segments as THE GROOVIE GOOLIES, WACKY AND PACKY, M*U*S*H and FRAIDY CAT.

Roberta Greutert Marshall, Hanna-Barbera's first ink-and-paint supervisor, passed away on April 26, 2007, in Woodland Hills, California, reports the BIG CARTOON DATABASE. She was 93 years old.

Born in Tennessee in 1914, she began her career in animation as a painter at MGM in 1938. While at MGM, she worked as a background artist in the CineScope Tom and Jerry shorts, TIMID TABBY (1957) and HAPPY GO DUCKY (1958).

In 1957, when the studio closed, she went to Hanna-Barbera, working as the ink-and-paint supervisor until she retired in the 1970s.

Illustrator and designer Benjamin "Ben" Ferrer passed away on March 22, 2007, reports the THE BIG CARTOON DATABASE. He was 47 years old.

Ferrer designed vehicles, weapons and other inanimate objects for the HBO series, SPICY CITY, which was directed by Ralph Bakshi, as well as Todd MacFarlane's Emmy-winning SPAWN.

For Disney's 2002 direct-to-video, CINDERELLA II: DREAMS COME TRUE, he designed a Ferris wheel.

Veteran animator Terence "Terry" Harrison, who won an Emmy in 1990 as the co-director of DISNEY'S THE NEW ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH, died on Feb. 28, 2007, in his native England at the age of 75.

Harrison also shared an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Animated Program in 1992 for POOH.

Harrison was an animator and director on Halas and Batchelor's FOO-FOO (1960). Harrison directed three shorts for the National Film Board of Canada, which included IN A NUTSHELL (1971), TILT (1972) and 11 STEPS TO SURVIVAL (1973).

Erica Deana Cassetti, a former animator for Walt Disney Feature Animation, died at her home in Chandler, Arizona, on April 21, 2007, reports THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC. She was 35 years old.

Cassetti was born Nov.18, 1971, in Houston, Texas, and went to CalArts. She began her career at Rhythm & Hues on the first Coca-Cola polar bear commercial. She followed that with a nine-year career at Disney, working on such films as THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, HERCULES, TARZAN and ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE. She left Disney to work on DreamWorks' SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS.

Carol Lundberg, who worked for such studios as Filmation Assoc., Marvel Prods., Hanna-Barbera Studios and Hyperion Pictures, died on Feb. 11, 2007, reports THE BIG CARTOON DATABASE. She was 72.

In 1969, Lundberg began work as a layout artist for Filmation, where she worked until 1981. Her Filmation layout credits included: STAR TREK (1973), THE SECRET LIVES OF WALDO KITTY (1975), THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN (1977), THE YOUNG SENTINELS (1977), THE FAT ALBERT CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (1977) and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF FLASH GORDON (1979).

Marshall Rogers, who was instrumental in revitalizing BATMAN in the 1970s, died unexpectedly at his home in Fremont, California, on March 25, 2007, reports various news outlets. He was 57 years old. His family is still waiting for the official cause of death.

Rogers was a relatively inexperienced outsider when he took over the plum assignment of penciling Batman's adventures in "Detective Comics" in 1977. Paul Levitz, president of DC Comics now and a writer then, recalled that Rogers became "one of the radical young stylists bringing new looks to DC in the '70s."

Tim Onosko, a leading new technology expert and trend forecaster, who worked for and advised The Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Imagineering and Universal Studios, passed away at his home in Madison, Wisconsin, on March 6, following a hard fought battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 60-years-old.