Rest In Play - 2020 - 2029

John Gibson, British game developer and programmer, passed away in July of 2023. After teaching himself to write machine code on a ZX81 computer, Gibson began his career at Imagine Software in 1983. W...hile at Imagine, he designed several games including Molar Maul, Zzoom, and Stonkers. After working at Imagine, Gibson co-founded Denton Designs, where he released Gift from the Gods, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and Cosmic Wartoad, Gibson spent a few years doing freelance work. In 1990, he joined Psygnosis, where he programmed Microcosm and Sentient, then spent some time at Warthog Games before joining Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, where he spent the remainder of his career until his death. At Sony, Gibson was a part of the Evolution Studios team. He worked on numerous games, including WRC4, WRC: Rally Evolved, Motorstorm, Pacific Rift, Apocalypse, RC, and Driveclub. At the time of his death, Gibson was retired and living in Thailand with his wife and pet dog.Show more

Jesse Horowitz was an American toy inventor. He was the creator and designer of the Johnny Eagle line, Johnny Speed Line, Silly Safari game, and Suzy Cute doll. He was also involved in the creation of... various other toys and games, including Stretch Armstrong, Strawberry Shortcake, and Care Bears. His skills were wide and varied, including graphic design, architectural sketches, oil painting, silkscreen prints, watercolor drawings, sculpture, ceramics, and photography. Horowitz graduated from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Industrial Design degree. He also studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art and Wayne State University. Throughout his career he worked in many different roles, including head of Industrial Design for Kenner Toy Company and Director of Design for the MAD East group. He also worked independently, collecting clients such as Disney on Ice, Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus, Takaram Galoob, Playwell, Just Toys, and Little Tikes. In college, he won First Prize in an Industrial Design content sponsored by RCA's Major Weapons Systems Division for a NASA space shot control room environment that incorporated a modular desk system. He also one the Grand Award in Chain Store Age Magazine's VASPA competition for his package design on the Penny Brite beauty line. Horowitz was also an avid SCUBA diver and held a 6th degree black belt in karate.Show more

Paul Reubens was born on August 27, 1952 and passed away on July 30, 2023 after a private battle with cancer. He was an American actor and comedian, most famous for creating and playing the character ...Pee-wee Herman. Reubens' career began in the 1970s when he joined the troupe the Groundlings. In 1981, he debuted The Pee-wee Herman Show, and was committed to this character for decades: produced and wrote a feature film directed by Tim Burton, and co-wrote and starred in the Netflix film Pee-wee's Big Holiday. He was also in various shows such as Murphy Brown, 30 Rock, Portlandia, and The Blacklist.Show more

Darren Watts passed away on December 31, 2022 at the age of 53, according to a post from Hero Games.Watts had been in the games industry for decades as an RPG author, editor, developer, and publisher.... In 2001, he and Stephen Long purchased the assets of Hero Games, which included the rights to Champions and the Hero System game line, from Cybergames, Inc. through their company DOJ Inc. Watts then became the President of Hero Games. From there, Watts produced several Champions books including Champions Universe, Champions Worldwide, and Champions Universe II. He also co-designed Galactic Champions, Millennium City, and Lucha Libre Hero. Watts left Hero Games in 2011. He continued to write and work fror other RPG companies, including Chaosium, and produced Darren Watts's Golden Age Champions, which was published through High Rock Press, in 2017. He also designed We Rate Dogs: The Card Game, published by Chronicle Books. Later, he worked as a consultant for Double Exposure conventions (Metatopia, Dreamation, DexCon, and Maelstrom). Many of his colleagues have spoken publicly and privately of Watts' kind heart, community spirit, and help to other RPG designers. He will be missedShow more

Annie Wersching, the actress who played Tess in The Last of Us, has died aged 45. Deadline shared the news alongside a statement from her husband, Stephen Full, who said Wersching taught her family to... chase adventure and recalled how she was capable of finding "wonder in the simplest moment." "She didn't require music to dance. She taught us not to wait for adventure to find you. 'Go find it. It's everywhere.' And find it we shall," he wrote. Although perhaps best known in the game industry for her role in The Last of Us, Wersching also appeared in a number of television shows including Star Trek: Picard, The Rookie, 24, and the Vampire Diaries. Friends and colleagues have paid tribute to Wersching on social media, including actor Troy Baker, who played Joel in The Last of Us and its sequel. "Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you are grateful for the simple gift of knowing them. Annie, so much of Tess is what you imbued into the character," wrote Baker. "Your strength is her strength and in some way, you live on in not only her but the many roles you brought to life." Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann, who co-created the franchise, also posted a tribute. "I miss my silly friend who helped bring Tess to life," said Druckmann. "Annie, you left us way too soon. You will forever be part of the The Last of Us and Naughty Dog family.Show more

Former Disney Distribution Exec, Dies at 47. He led the studio's theatrical distribution operation from 2011-18, playing a key role in the 'Avengers' series and the relaunch of the 'Star Wars' franchi...se. A charismatic executive, Hollis led theatrical distribution at Disney from 2011-18 during an unprecedented winning streak for the studio. He played a key role in the relaunch of the Star Wars franchise, as well as the Avengers series, Frozen and Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster superhero film Black Panther (2018). During Hollis’ tenure, Disney experienced unprecedented box office growth, in 2016 becoming the first studio to cross the $7 billion mark in global ticket sales in a given year. Hollis surprised many in 2018 when he announced he was leaving Disney to relocate his family to Texas to run his then-wife Rachel Hollis’ company, home of podcasts, conferences and TV shows. Rachel Hollis is an author, motivational speaker and social influencer. He revealed in his 2020 self-help book, Get Out of Your Own Way, that he had found himself morose, at odds with his wife and drinking too much toward the end of his Disney tenure. “There is something unbelievably liberating about owning the truth of my experience,” he told The Hollywood Reporter at the time. The following year, he wrote a second self-help book, Built Through Courage: Face Your Fears to Live the Life You Were Meant For, that chronicled his difficult, public divorce and personal reckoning. He most recently published the children’s book Here’s to Your Dreams and had a podcast, Rise Together. He was a large part of an online fitness and transformation community with his partner Heidi Powell called Get Fit.Show more

Japanese music producer Tohru Okada, who created the sound for Sony's PlayStation logo, has died at age 73. Several Japanese news outlets such as Excite reported that Okada passed away on February ...14 due to heart failure, and bandmates from his Japanese rock band the Moonriders later corroborated the news on social media. "I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has worked with Toru Okada for a long time, and to all the fans who have loved Toru Okada's music," wrote the Moonriders in a translated Facebook post. The PlayStation sound has been a part of the console for nearly its entire lifetime, and has typically been used in commercials for Sony's game system. For a certain generation, hearing that sound effect on TV was how they knew a PlayStation exclusive was about to be advertised. Along with that sound effect, Okada created music used in several ads during the 1990s for Crash Bandicoot, one of PlayStation's most popular mascots at the time. Okada was also a keyboard player and founding member of the Moonriders, along with Mother composer Keiichi Suzuki. The band wrote on Facebook that its concert intended for April 29 and April 30 has now been canceled, but they'll share their thoughts on the late Okada during the event.Show more

From the fourth generation of his family to be involved in the toy industry, Antony Michael Redgate Nunn sadly passed away earlier this month. Toy World is sad to report that Antony passed away une...xpectedly on the 5th February, aged 69. He was the fourth generation of his family to be involved in the toy trade, as previous generations ran the well-known Redgates store, established in 1857, in Sheffield. In the 1960s, Redgates became known in the trade as one of the best toy shops outside of London, often referred to as the “Hamleys of the North.” Antony’s journey into the toy trade began in 1971 when, at the age of 18, he moved to London to work for import business, Cowan de Groot. Two years later, armed with plenty of new-found experiences, Antony he returned to his roots in the North and joined the Redgates family retail business, overseeing Redgates’ wholesale division, Wilson Gumpert. Redgates and Wilson Gumpert were instrumental in the founding of buying group Toymaster; Michael Nunn, Antony’s father was chairman of White Rose Toys, a buying group which was a cornerstone to Toymaster as we know it today. Antony met his wife Silke in 1977, the daughter of Franz and Marianne Goetz, founders of prestigious doll manufacturer, Goetz Dolls, based in Germany. After Redgates and Wilson Gumpert closed in 1988, Antony co-founded AM international with Mark Eckersley to distribute dolls, children’s toys, nursery goods and even garden gnomes. In 1998, after ten years of successful trading, Antony decided to forge his own path and Antony Nunn Agencies was established. His son Patrick joined in 2009, and now the business will proudly continue under Patrick’s leadership as the fifth generation of the family to work within the toy trade. Antony will be remembered in the industry for his good humour, fair and honest business practices, and his lifelong dedication to a trade that he was proud to be part of. Outside work, Antony was an active sportsman, running marathons and half marathons as well as being a proficient golfer and an avid squash player, in the later years reverting to racketball. He would also never miss an opportunity to support his beloved Blades from the stands. As a very generous, considerate and kind man, Antony supported several charities he was passionate about, joining Osteoporosis2000 as a director in 2000. More recently he was asked to become a patron of a local hospice: Ashgate Hospice, Chesterfield. This privilege filled him with immense pride and he dedicated a significant amount of his later life to raising money and bringing further awareness to the essential work and care the hospice provides. Antony will be sorely missed by all those who knew him. He leaves behind his wife Silke, daughter Charlie, son Patrick and his grandson Walter.Show more

Klaus Teuber, the designer of Settlers of Catan passed away on April 1, 2023 at age 70. He was a German dental technician who became a professional board game designer. Klaus designed four games that... won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres (Game of the Year) award: Barbarossa (1988), Adel Verpflichtet (1990), Drunter und Drüber (1991) and The Settlers of Catan (1995). The latter sold over 40 million copies with many line expansions.Show more

Joan Frances Widmer, known by friends and family as "Bam" (shortened from Bambina, as she was christened by the neighborhood Italian greengrocer) passed away on January 20th at Carolina Meadows, her r...etirement community in Chapel Hill, NC. She was almost halfway through her 96th year. Up to her death, she was amazed and a little unbelieving that she had achieved that great age. She had a full, creative, interesting, and accomplished life and fulfilled her ardent wish to live independently until her death. Born on August 18, 1926, in Chicago to Frances Wynn Heile and Charles Heyfield Pike, she and her younger siblings, Patricia and Dick, grew up in a well-to-do household, doted on by their maternal grandmother who loved to take them to concerts, plays, ballets and museums. Their mother, Frances, was a pioneer in many respects by having attended Smith College and even more so in starting and running her own industrial design company in partnership with her sister, Harriet, in the 1930's. Frances was also an accomplished watercolorist who left Chicago at 61 to move to Los Angeles where she worked as a soft toy designer until her death at 73. Career and creativity were in Bam's genes. Bam's father, Charles, from Newfoundland, and whose history is a bit shrouded in mystery, was a much-awarded athlete at UPenn and a physician. The family's early years during the depression included summers in Wisconsin with Bam's maternal grandmother, aunt and uncle at Oconomowoc Lake, a much beloved memory. Bam attended Purdue University, but left to marry her first husband, Harry Leonard, living for the first two years of their marriage in San Francisco where she worked in a lab at the University of California, San Francisco hospital. When she and Harry returned to Chicago, she joined with her mother to start a small company that designed and produced "Snuffy the Clown" and other baby items. The department store, Carson Pirie Scott, in downtown Chicago displayed a multitude of Snuffy the Clowns in their Christmas window one year. Bam traveled throughout the midwest and east coast selling the company's wares to department stores. She left the company to raise two daughters. During the time at home with her kids she began her career in publishing, putting together, in the basement of their suburban home, a winter ski-goers guide being developed with Harry in the early days of that soon-to-be-popular sport. When her youngest went to school, Bam was off to work at Robert Snyder and Associates, a creative agency in Chicago. There, her professional work in publishing began in earnest. The many relationships she came to have through her work with colleagues, clients and friends; and travel all over the world, were the passions that would give her the greatest sense of personal accomplishment and engagement. Bam always had a keen eye and refined feel for visual arts and design. At Robert Snyder's she worked as an as an art director for an assortment of commercial magazines, including Mainliner Magazine for United Airlines. After her first marriage ended in divorce, she married a publishing colleague, Sheldon Widmer, in 1962 and began a partnership both personal and professional. The two were asked in the late 60's to develop a consumer magazine for Betty Crocker focused on women, and in 1972 they launched the premier issue of SPHERE Magazine, with Bam as editor. Her next decade was an all-consuming life of creative idea-making, content development, design collaboration, and international travel. Primarily about cooking, and with beautiful photography, Sphere also included fashion, travel, crafts and interior design, and food lore and recipes from cultures around the world. There were many internationally themed issues that captured the newly recognized breadth of women's interests around homemaking but also beyond it. Bam was fiercely proud of her work as editor of Sphere (later Cuisine). She was much beloved by the writers, editors, photographers, and recipe developers who worked with her on the magazine. During these years she and Sheldon traveled to many places in Europe and Asia, and to a favorite destination, Haiti, both for the magazine and on their own. They also renovated and beautifully re-designed and furnished several homes on the north side of Chicago where they lived. The two first retired to the community of Fearrington in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Sadly, Sheldon died when Bam was just 61; she never remarried. She made Carolina Meadows her permanent residence in 2013. In retirement Bam relished a busy, fiercely independent life of concert and play-going; twice-yearly extended stays in London for many years; courses for Seniors; dining and movies with dear friends; and tooling around town in her car, often the chauffeur for fellow residents in her community. She followed politics closely and was a lifelong advocate for women's rights. She was on a first name basis with many people who worked in the prepared foods departments of many stores, but especially her beloved Southern Seasons. In these later years she took much joy in her occasional visits with grandchildren and great grandchildren, watching in fascination as they have grown and developed each in their individual way. She delighted in her one bit of modern technology-a picture frame to which her family uploaded photos of their lives, but especially of her great grandchildren who she found endlessly entertaining and endearing. She is survived by her daughters Victoria Leonard (Noah Kahn) and Beth Leonard (Doug Pierson); sister Patricia Fricke; stepsons Skip Widmer and Stephen Widmer; grandchildren Bryn Kahn, Miranda Kahn and Emma Pierson; step grandchildren Yancy and Mina Widmer; and great grandchildren Kaiden, Caeleigh and Natasha.Show more