RIP Tuck Tucker

Veteran Nickelodeon Animator Tuck Tucker Passes Away

NickAlive

December 24, 2020

Veteran Nickelodeon storyboarder, writer, artist, animator, songwriter, and director Tuck Tucker sadly passed away on Tuesday, December 22, 2020.

Tucker was born in East Peoria Illinois. Due to his poor school performance, his parents put him into a private school. He would spend most of his time at home watching cartoons with his father and cites these experiences as being very special to him.

While in animation class, his instructor moved him to Los Angeles after graduation to work at Disney, where he launched his career working on films such as The Little Mermaid. Tucker then went to work on shows such as A.L.F. and The Simpsons, before heading to Nickelodeon, where he served in a variety of roles on a raft of the network's beloved animated series, including Rugrats, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Hey Arnold!, SpongeBob SquarePants, The Fairly OddParents, Oh Yeah! Cartoons ("Planet Kate/Fat Head"), The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, The Mighty B! and The Ren & Stimpy Show, as well as The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Tucker's daughter is also one of the kids' voices that can be heard in the SpongeBob SquarePants theme song.

Tucker also worked on animated series such as Duckman: Private Dick/Family Man, 2 Stupid Dogs, Family Guy, Party Wagon, Camp Lazlo!, Clarence and Madagascar spin-off All Hail King Julien. His last credit was working as a storyboard revisionist on the upcoming theatrical Bob's Burgers: The Movie.

During his time on SpongeBob, he won the 38th Annual Annie Award in 2011 for Best Music in a Television Production alongside Jeremy Wakefield, Sage Guyton, and Nick Carr.

In January 2015, Tucker began teaching graphic and animation design at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.

Former SpongeBob storyboard artist Nick Lauer paid tribute to the late animator on Twitter: Last night I found out my mentor from college, Tuck Tucker, passed away. He was a wonderful man with a great sense of humor. I learned so much from him. You might know him from Spongebob and Hey Arnold (he was a big reason why Helga turned out to be such a great character). I would not be where I am today without his guidance. I can’t get over the fact that I won’t be able to chat on the phone with him again. Don’t forget to tell the important people in your life how much they mean to you. One day it may be too late. Thanks for everything, Tuck."

Tucker also went by several alias, including: Bily Tucker, Bill Tucker, William Tucker, Billy Bob Tucker and William 'Tuck' Tucker.

 

TUCKER, Tuck (William Osborne Tucker III)

Born: 8/20/1961, Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.A.

Died: 12/22/2020, Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.A.

Tuck Tucker’s westerns – assistant animator:

BraveStarr (TV) 1987-1989

BraveStarr: The Legend – 1988