Oscar-winning illustrator and film director, Eugene Merrill Deitch, has died at the age of 95.
As reported by international tabloids, Gene Deitch died in his apartment in Prague’s Little Quarter on Thursday night.
The last Facebook post shared by Gene Deitch on April 11 was about the coronavirus but Cartoon Brew cited a family friend and neighbour to report that his death wasn’t related to coronavirus.
Gene Deitch directed 13 episodes of Tom And Jerry for MGM between 1961 to 1962 and also directed a few episodes of Popeye for King Features between 1960 and 1963.
His animated short Munro won the Best Animated Short Film Oscar in 1961, the first of its kind created outside US to win an Oscar.
Gene Deitch is also critically acclaimed for directing animated feature Alice of Wonderland In Paris.
He was honoured with the Winsor McCay Award in 2003 for his contribution to animation.
Born in Chicago in 1924,Gene Deitch arrived in Prague in 1959 intending to stay for 10 days. But, after falling in love with his future wife, Zdenka, he ended up spending the rest of his life in the city.
He directed Tom and Jerry from behind the Iron Curtain and later captured life in communist Czechoslovakia – later the Czech Republic – in his memoirs “For the Love of Prague”.
Gene Deitch is survived by his wife and by three sons from his first marriage, all of whom are cartoonists and illustrators.
