Joe Alaskey, Voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Dies at 63

One of the successors to Mel Blanc, he also voiced such Looney Tunes characters as Sylvester and Tweety.

Joe Alaskey, who voiced such Looney Tunes characters as Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, has died. He was 63.

Alaskey died Wednesday at his home in Green Island, N.Y., following a short illness, his niece and former personal assistant, Trish Alaskey, told The Hollywood Reporter. The news was announced on his official Facebook page.

Alaskey was one of the successors to Mel Blanc on the long-running Looney Tunes cartoons. In addition to Bugs and Daffy, he voiced Sylvester and Tweety as well as other animated characters including Plucky Duck on Tiny Toon Adventures and Grandpa Lou Pickles on Rugrats.

He won an Emmy for his Daffy Duck voice work and a Daytime Emmy Award for voicing the title role on Duck Dodgers, and he was nominated for an Annie Award for Looney Tunes: Back in Action for his Daffy Duck.

Alaskey also provided the voices of President Nixon in 1994's Forrest Gump and Stinkie in 1995's Casper and narrated Investigation Discovery's Murder Comes to Town, which premiered in 2014. He recorded his final episode on Jan. 29, and it will air as the series' season finale March 14, a Discovery publicist said. Watch him in the sound booth here.

Alaskey also played Beano Froelich on the 1987-91 sitcom Out of This World opposite Burt Reynolds.

"He was known to his fans as 'The Man of a Thousand Voices' and is remembered by loved ones as a kind, quick-witted man who brought laughter and joy to every room he entered," his family said in a statement.

Joseph Francis Alaskey III was born April 17, 1952, in Troy, N.Y. He graduated from La Salle Institute and attended Siena College. After moving to Los Angeles, he found steady work as a comedian, impressionist and actor.

A nostalgic, Alaskey had a passion for classic TV and radio shows, his family said, and he also was an avid comic book collector.

In addition to his voice and acting work, Alaskey also was a writer: His memoir, That's Still Not All Folks!!, was released in 2009 and he recently released a horror novel, Frater Dementis, and a collection of short stories, Queasy Street: Volume One — Eleven Tales of Fantasy. Alaskey's family said that more of his work will continue to be released.