Monday, January 20, 2014

Michael Sporn (1946-2014)


It's only been three weeks since the death of Frederic Back, and already we've lost another well-respected Oscar-nominated animator. Michael Sporn, the man behind the Oscar nominated Doctor De Soto and his well respected animation "Splog," has passed away at the age of 64. While Sporn has never won an Oscar, but his works with Weston Woods were a major part of my childhood, and that includes the aforementioned Doctor De Soto. Furthermore, his Splog was a great source of interesting observations into the world of animation from an insider, and often the source of the long-listed animated short films. A cause of death was not mentioned in his obituaries*, although whatever led to it may have explained why we never did get the full longlist this year. Many of his last few posts were related to the work of Miyazaki, including Kaze Tachinu. Regardless, he will be missed.

*Apparently it's pancreatic cancer. Screw pancreatic adenocarcinomas

Here's a good tribute to his work, and Doctor De Soto after the break.

g



4 comments:

  1. A cause of death was not mentioned in his obituaries, although whatever led to it may have explained why we never did get the full longlist this year.

    He had a long battle with pancreatic cancer and that is what did him in. Sad too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Damn that pancreatic cancer. It killed Satoshi Kon too.

      Delete
  2. They really are dropping like flies these past few years...

    24 hours later and Cartoon Brew still haven't picked up on this one!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for sharing, nice post! Post really provice useful information!

    An Thái Sơn với website anthaison.vn chuyên sản phẩm máy đưa võng hay máy đưa võng tự động tốt cho bé là địa chỉ bán máy đưa võng giá rẻ tại TP.HCM và giúp bạn tìm máy đưa võng loại nào tốt nhất hiện nay.

    ReplyDelete