Joe Alaskey, voice of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, dead at 63

Actor Joseph Alaskey, best known as the modern voice behind Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester the Cat and Tweety Bird, has died at the age of 63.

Alaskey died on Wednesday after a battle with cancer, according to reports and a post on the actor's Facebook page.

"Never doubt that Joe loved each and every one of you. Your comments and posts always made his day and brought joy to his heart and life," wrote spokesperson K.P. Lynne. 

After the death of voice legend Mel Blanc (dubbed The Man of 1000 Voices) in 1989, New York comic actor and impressionist Alaskey was among those who took up the mantle of voicing the famed characters of the Looney Tunes universe. 

He played a wide range of characters, from Bugs and Daffy to Sylvester and Tweety to Elmer Fudd, Marvin the Martian, Foghorn Leghorn and Pepé Le Pew.

In particular, he was noted for his Daffy Duck, winning a Daytime Emmy award in 2004 for Cartoon Network's Duck Dodgers and an Annie Award nomination for his Daffy in that year's Looney Tunes: Back in Action. 

Other voice roles included Grandpa Lou in the Rugrats series, Plucky Duck on Tiny Toon Adventures, Yosemite Sam in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Stinky in the live action-CGI film Caspar (and its sequel) and the voice of U.S. President Richard Nixon in the Oscar-winning film Forrest Gump.

More recently, he was heard as the narrator of Discovery Channel's series Murder Comes to Town and worked on video games such as Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham.

On camera, Alaskey appeared in the 1988 film Lucky Stiff and starred as Uncle Beano on the late-1980s TV sitcom Out of This World.

In addition to his acting career, Alaskey was also a writer, publishing a memoir entitled That's Still Not All Folks!, a horror novel Frater Dementis and short story collection Queasy Street: Volume One -- Eleven Tales of Fantasy.