In what’s a tremendous loss to the international animation industry, Pixar’s veteran animation artist Adam Burke passed away on Monday night after losing battle to cancer. Incredibles 2 director Brad Bird, who collaborated with him on the project, broke the news by putting out a heartfelt message on his official Twitter handle.
In a career spanning over two decades, Burke got his hands on some of the biggest animation productions in that period. He started out at Warner Bros. during the early 90s for a few years, working in animation flick such as The Iron Giant as well as Space Jam, before jumping ships to Dreamworks. Some of his early projects there includes The Road to Eldorado, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.
Bruke however, went on to truly establish himself as the animation doyen at Pixar as he worked on all other films by Bird too, such as Incredibles, Ratatouille and The Iron Giant, as well as some other big budget productions of Pixar like Cars, Cars 2, Wall-E, Up and Toy Story 3.
“He was diagnosed with lung cancer 10 months ago and still found a way to brighten other peoples lives through his tough and short battle,” told Burke’s brother Aaron to Cartoon Brew as the sad news has garnered commiserations from many artists from the industry. He is survived by his wife and two sons.