Death of Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob, at the age of 57



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Stephen Hillenburg, creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, died at the age of 57.

The US television channel Nickelodeon announced that Hillenburg had died Monday from a motor neuron disease, also known in the United States as ALS.

We are sad to share the news of the death of Stephen Hillenburg, the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants. Today we observe a moment of silence to pay tribute to his life and work. ?

– Nickelodeon (@ Nickelodeon) November 27, 2018

In March 2017, he told Variety that he had been diagnosed with MND, a progressive disease that attacks nerve cells that control muscles and has no known cure.

Mr Hillenburg was a former professor of marine biology who launched the series featuring an animated sponge that lives in a pineapple under the sea in 1999.

As a teacher, Mr. Hillenburg had used illustrations of the sea and its creatures as educational tools. Some of the characters then became inhabitants of Bikini Bottom, the underwater city on which the series is based.

SpongeBob SquarePants at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards in London in 2008 (Matt Crossick / PA)

Mr. Hillenburg left his teaching career to pursue animation studies in 1987. He was then hailed by critics for his award-winning short Wormholes in 1992, after earning a Master of Fine Arts degree.

Mr. Hillenburg then worked at Nickelodeon on their Rocko's Modern Life show from 1993 to 1996.

He has received two Emmy Awards and six Annie Awards, awarded by the International Animation Film Association, for SpongeBob SquarePants.

It's no mean feat to create something as strange as Bob sponge, but also sweet and indifferent. TEAR. https://t.co/wtytB346iA

– James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) November 27, 2018

"It's no mean feat to create something as strange as Bob sponge, but also sweet and indifferent. RIP, "wrote James Poniewozik, a New York Times TV critic, in response to the announcement of Hillenburg's death.

– Press Association

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