The time has come to say goodbye to another soul that was a big part of people’s childhoods as Daniel Gerson, the pen behind the magic of Monsters Inc, Big Hero 6, and many other Disney-Pixar stories.
The New York native passed away Saturday after battling brain cancer, he was 49 years. Gerson co-wrote many stories alongside Robert L. Baird, after the two met in 1998. He also worked on the original Monsters Inc script with Andrew Stanton but then paired up with Baird for the hit prequel that came out in 2001. The pair worked on and was set to work on Cars 3, Oscar winning Big Hero 6, Cars, Up, Inside Out, and many other big titles. He also dabbled in voice acting, and lent his talents to his screenplay and voiced the Desk Sergeant in Big Hero 6 and also to a few characters in both the Monsters Inc movies. But it wasn’t just movies that the talented writer has in his portfolio.
Upon graduating from Cornell University with his bachelor’s in English, and then later receiving an MFA from NYU’s film school, he moved to Los Angeles. There he began his writing career as a staff writer for the 90s NBC comedy “Something So Right”. After writing for a few other TV shows such as “The New Addams Family” and “Big Wolf on Campus”, Gerson began working for Disney/Pixar and helped produce films that grossed over $2 billion globally.
In his honor his family, his wife and two children, started a Brain Tumor Program charity in UCLA. In Gerson’s name donations can be made for research and other patients also battling brain cancer. Though the world lost a young vivacious writer, the memories and mark he has made in the mind of many adults and children to come, will never be forgotten.