Gordon Bressack (left) and son James Cullen BressackGordon Bressack, the Emmy-winning writer known for such animated hits as Pinky and the Brain and Animaniacs, has died. He was 68.
Bressack died last Friday, August 30 in Los Angeles after a long health battle, his son, filmmaker James Cullen Bressack, told The Hollywood Reporter.
“Thank you for telling me I was going to be a filmmaker before I ever even knew what that meant,” the younger Bressack wrote on Instagram. “You meant the world to me, you always have and you always will.”
Gordon Bressack worked on some of the most influential cartoons of the 1990s. He was nominated for five Daytime Emmys and won three that he shared with his colleagues — outstanding achievement in animation for Animaniacs in 1996; outstanding special class animated program for Pinky and the Brain in 1999; and outstanding children’s animated program for Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain in 2000.
In 1998, Bressack became the first recipient of the Writers Guild of America’s Animation Writers Caucus Animation Award.
His credits also include Tiny Toon Adventures, The Smurfs, Mighty Max, Darkwing Duck, Bionic Six and his own creation, Captain Simian and the Space Monkeys.
In addition to his son — with whom he shared his most recent animation credit, on their 2017 feature-length film CarGo — Bressack is survived by his daughters, Jackie and Samantha; his grandchild, Logan; and siblings Margi, Celia and Roger.
