It's sometimes easy to forget that the animated movies you love have writing teams behind them, so seamless do the likes of Disney and Pixar make it look. But they have one less among their number as Daniel Gerson (to the right in the picture above), who worked on films such as Monsters University and Big Hero 6, has died at the age of 49.
Born on New York's Upper West Side, Gerson grew up with a love of performing, taking tap and drumming through his childhood and acting on stage in musical theatre during high school. He continued stage work while studying at Cornell and, after graduation, completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at NYU Film School.
Despite his talent for performance, he focused on writing and started his career as a staff writer on sitcom Something So Right. Having also worked on shows such as The New Addams Family and Big Wolf On Campus, he moved to feature films, toiling away uncredited before landing at Pixar, where he was part of the team writing Monsters, Inc. From there, he split his time between both Pixar and Disney projects, adding material to Chicken Little, Cars, Meet The Robinsons and collaborated with regular writing parter Robert L. Baird on Monsters University and Big Hero 6.
Gerson had been diagnosed with brain cancer while working on Cars 3, and died on Saturday. He's survived by his wife and family, and leaves an enviable legacy of making us smile.