‘Spongebob Squarepants’ creator dies at 57
Stephen Hillenburg, who used his dual loves of drawing and marine biologytospawnthe absurdunderseaworldof “Spongebob Squarepants,” has died, Nickelodeon announced Tuesday.
Hillenburg died Monday of Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as ALS, the cable channel said in a statement. He was 57.
He had announced his ALS diagnosis in March 2017. Hillenburg’s death comes just weeks after the passing of another cartoon hero, Marvel creator Stan Lee.
Hillenburg conceived, wrote,producedand directed the animated series that began in 1999 and bloomed into hundreds of episodes, movies and a Broadway show.
The absurdly jolly Spongebob and his yellalongthemesongthat opened with “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?!” quickly appealed to college kidsandparentsasmuchas it did to kids.
“Thefactthatit’sundersea and isolated from our world helps the characters maintain their own culture,” Hillenburg said in 2001.
“The essence of the show is that Spongebob is an innocent in a world of jadedcharacters.therestis absurdpackaging.”
Its vast cast of oceanic creatures included Spongebob’s starfish sidekick Patrick, his tightwad boss Mr. Krabs, squirrel pal Sandy Cheeks and always-exasperated neighbor Squidward Tentacles.
While Hillenburg introduced and popularized exoticcreaturessuchas the sea sponge (which in the real world is not square,) Bikini Bottom was arealmlikenoother,real or fictional. Spongebob can play his nose like a flute and could not possibly be happier to work his fastseafood job flipping Krabby Patties.
But he has his troubles, too. He constantly fails his boat-driving test, forcing his frightened blowfish teacher toinflate.inoneepisodehe suffers a broken butt and is afraid to leave his pineapple homefordays.
“Idon’twanttofacemy fears,” Spongebob, voiced by Tom Kenny, says in another episode.“i’mafraidof them!”
Born at his father’s army post in Lawton, Oklahoma, Hillenburggraduatedfrom Humboldt State University in California in 1984 with a degree in natural resource planning with an emphasis on marine resources and went on to teach marine biologyattheorange County Marine Institute.
While there he drew a comic, “The Intertidal Zone,” that he used as a teaching tool. It featured anthropomorphic ocean creatures that were precursors to the characters on “Spongebob.”
Hillenburg shifted to drawing and earned a masteroffineartsdegree in animation from the California Institute of the Arts in 1992.
That same year he created an animated short called “Wormholes” that won festival plaudits and helped land him a job on the Nickelodeon show “Rocko’s Modern Life,” where he workedfrom1993to1996, before he began to build Spongebob’s undersea world of Bikini Bottom, which showed off his knowledge of marine life and willingness to throw all the details out the window.
“We know that fish don’t walk,” he said, “and thatthereisnoorganized community with roads, where cars are really boats. And if you know much about sponges, you know that living sponges aren’t square.”
Theshowwasan immediate hit that has lost no momentum in the nearly 20yearssinceitscreation andhelpeddefinethe culture of Nickelodeon.
“He was a beloved friend and longtime creative partner to everyone at Nickelodeon,andour heartsgoouttohisentire family,” Nickelodeon’s statement said. “His utterly original characters and the world of Bikini Bottom will long stand as a reminder of the value of optimism, friendship and the limitless power of imagination.”
Theshow’snearly250 episodes have won four Emmyawardsand15kids’ Choice Awards and led to an endless line of merchandise to rival any other pop cultural phenomenon of the 2000s.
“When you set out to do a show about a sponge, you can’tanticipatethiskindof craze,” Hillenburg said in 2002.
In 2004, the show shifted to the big screen with “The Spongebob Squarepants Movie” and a 2015 sequel, “The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.”
A musical stage adaptation bowedonbroadwayin
2017, with music from such starsassteventyler,sara Bareilles and John Legend. Itearned12tonyaward nominations.
Hillenburgissurvived by his wife of 20 years,
Karen Hillenburg, son Clay, mother Nancy Hillenburg andabrother,briankelly Hillenburg.