Animator Bill Melendez who injected life into a number of characters of comic strip 'Peanuts' like Snoopy and Charlie Brown has passed away. He was 91 years old. As per his publicist Amy Goldsmith, Melendez died because of natural causes on Tuesday, September 2, 2008. It was in 1938 that Bill Melendez began his career as a pro animator. The Walt Disney Studios hired him and he made Mickey Mouse cartoons and other classic animated features.

Bill Melendez even was the voice of Snoopy, whose talks only comprised interpretable howls, signs and sobs. This great animator was born at Hermosillo in the Mexican state of Sonora in 1916. It was in 1959 that Bill Melendez met Charles M. Schulz, the creator of Peanuts characters. They soon became good buddies. Bill Melendez is the only person Charles M. Schulz permitted to animate his characters.