Will Ryan, the veteran voice artist who voiced characters in classic children’s movies The Land Before Time and An American Tail along with being the voice of Willie the Giant for Disney since 1983, has passed away at the age of 72 after a short battle with cancer. The prolific voice actor and musician died on November 19th, with the news being confirmed in a statement with The Hollywood Reporter.

“The world is a little less bright tonight with the passing of Will Ryan,” wrote Lemus in a statement. “As much as he was known to many of you as a Disney icon, voice-over legend, gun twirling cowboy, musician/songwriter, a brilliant comedic actor, along with a list of credits that don’t even touch the essence of what he accomplished… he was my friend.”

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Lemus continued: “For those who didn’t know him, he was a beautiful person. He was selfless. His humility was endless. He spent his entire life helping others and the loss his friends and family feel tonight would be a tragic understatement. He was a beautiful soul and I was honored to just know him, let alone represent him. I can’t find all the words that would express what he meant to our company CelebWorx, and the rest of the world he touched with his talent.”

Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Ryan began his career in entertainment singing about the American West. After playing small gigs throughout the sixties, by the 1970s he had teamed up with Phil Baron and performed across the U.S. as Willio and Phillio, as well as making appearances on radio and television. One of Ryan’s first well known voice acting roles saw him voicing multiple characters in Mickey’s Christmas Carol for Disney, including Willie the Giant, a role he would continue to play throughout his career that would also be his final performance this year in an episode of Mickey Mouse Funhouse.

He went on to have a long career with Disney and other animation companies voicing a number of well-known characters playing Grubby the Octopede in the Teddy Ruxpin audio series as well as in the 1986 TV show The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin, Petrie in the much loved The Land Before Time and Digit in An American Tail. His other feature film roles including Disney’s The Little Mermaid, A Troll in Central Park, Looney Tunes: Back in Action and Get a Horse! On TV his roles including Disney classic series such as Welcome To Pooh Corner, The Wuzzles, Gummi Bears, Duck Tales and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, as well as also appearing in Garfield and Friends and Family Guy. His final performance in 2021 went out in an episode of Mickey Mouse Funhouse called Mickey and the Cornstalk which brought to a close his career with Willie The Giant, the character he began with.

As well as his voice roles for TV and film, Ryan became a regular part of the radio drama Adventures in Odyssey in 1987, voicing over 100 individual characters in the series. He wrote and performed songs for The Walt Disney Company around the same time, and music was never too far away from his work, having briefly performed in the music and comedy trio The Merry Metronomes with Andrew J. Lederer and Michael Rosenberg, and also teamed up with Nick Santa Maria infrequently as vaudeville-style duo Biffle & Shooster, a partnership that included five films starting with It’s a Frame-Up! in 2013.

Ryan is survived by his wife, Niparko Ryan, and his siblings Patty Ryan, Marsha Ryan Russo, and George Ryan and our thoughts go out to them at this time, as well as to all of his fans and friends. Rest in peace, Will Ryan. This news comes to us from The Hollywood Reporter.