Rest In Play - 2020 - 2029

Simon Hedge was born on August 26, 1996 and passed away on June 20, 2023 after a short battle with cancer. He was the former managing director of Flair Leisure Products, the company he co-founded with... Peter Brown 24 years ago. Hedge began his career in the toy industry in the early 1990s when he joined Hasbro. In 1995, Hedge joined Peter Brown and Russ Ward at K'Nex, where he managed the supply chain and operations. Shortly before founding Flair, Hedge found himself working for Hasbro again. In the beginning of Flair, Hedge worked as the commercial director overseeing marketing and operations. Within 5 years, Flair became a "Sunday Times Fast track 100" and was named Company of the Year at the 2004 Toy Fair industry awards. In 2009, Flair won Supplier of the Year and Girls' Toy of the year for Sylvanian Families. In 2011, Flair became the No. 4 toy company in the UK. In 2013, Hedge became the managing director of Flair, and held this position for 8 years. In 2021, he left the business and started working at Singleton Trading. Simon Hedge will be missed by many: family, friends, and colleagues.Show more

John Cook passed away on June 28th 2023. A model maker and toy inventor, he worked at Mattel, Kenner and Playskool. He worked on Hot Wheels playsets, Star Wars, Strawberry Shortcake, Play Doh, Carci ...doll and much more. He founded John Cook Toy Designs over thirty years ago, where did built models and designed toys.Show more

Liam Smyth, one of the co-founders of Smyths Toys Superstores, passed away in July of 2023. He and his brothers, Tony, Padraig, and Tommie grew the business from one small shop in Claremorris into one... of Europe's biggest specialist toy chains. Smyth was a supporter of the Claremorris Gaelic athletic Association and was known as a leading figure in the business life of the town.Show more

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