10 Disney Pixar Actors Who Are No Longer With Us

2. Joe Ranft - A Bug's Life (And Others)

Who He Was

Joe Ranft was one of the Pixar family. He was a screenwriter, animator, storyboard artist, voice actor and magician who worked for the company as well as Disney. His work was prolific, and he was responsible for scenes in The Little Mermaid, Beauty And The Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King among many others.

As is the tradition with Pixar, he voiced several characters, and has one named after him in Monsters Inc (JJ Raft). Cars was dedicated to him when he was tragically killed after a car he was travelling in plunged 130 foot into a river.

His brother Jerome is a sculptor and sometimes voice artist for Pixar.

Role: Heimlich

Ranft's most famous role came in A Bug's Life, where he adopted a German accent to play Heimlich the caterpillar crippled by self-confidence issues. His performance was as funny as it was touching, and the final revelation of his "transformation" into a beautiful butterfly is the film's best moment.

He also voiced Jacques The Shrimp in Finding Nemo, Red and Peterbilt in Cars, Pete "Claws" Ward in Monsters Inc and Lenny and Wheezy in Toy Story and its first sequel.

Died: August 16th, 2005