Stephen McDannell Hillenburg[1] (born August 21, 1961; age 56) is a former American marine biologist, animator, and the main creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, who left production shortly after the first movie was completed, and returned upon creation of the second.
Other than behind-the-scenes work, he was the early voice of Potty the Parrot and also played the ukulele for some of the show's original music, including the "Best Day Ever" special.
It was announced he was diagnosed with ALS on March 13, 2017.[2]
Lawsuit
In 2007, Troy Walker, a cartoonist from Fairfield, California, sued Hillenburg, claiming that he stole his ideas from Walker's 1991 comic strip, Bob Spongee, the Unemployed Sponge. Walker argued that the concept and design of Hillenburg's SpongeBob SquarePants was lifted from his "Bob Spongee" homemade toy character. In his original concept, Walker drew a face on a kitchen sponge and attached plastic googly eyes. He placed the model in a transparent bag that included the comic strip, and sold it in Northern California as collectibles at flea markets and through the mail in 1992. Walker claimed that he produced 1,000 of the "drawn-on" dolls.
In 2002, after learning about SpongeBob SquarePants, Walker concluded: "It obviously fell into the hands of one of the producers of the show. It's a clear pattern of duplication." He filed the lawsuit against Hillenburg, Paramount Studios, and Nickelodeon and their parent company, Viacom, in a United States district court in San Francisco. He had demanded $1.6 billion in damages, and alleged that the accused used his idea without his permission [3] .[4] He said that "they took all of it." Walker also pointed out that the show's pilot episode "Help Wanted" (in which an unemployed SpongeBob gets his job at the Krusty Krab) was proof that the defendants stole his concept. The settlement was later dropped after a summary judgement in Viacom's favor.
Trivia
- On May 25, 2012, Hillenburg announced that he would be writing The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water.
- Sometimes, he is referred to as "Steven or Steve Hillenburg."
- After The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie came out, Hillenburg left the show, because after the first movie was when the show was originally supposed to end. However, Hillenburg didn't leave the show entirely; he still serves as an executive producer.[5]
- According to Paul Tibbitt's Twitter feed, Hillenburg came back to work on the series in January 2015. This was proven true as he produced some episodes from Season 9.
- He served as executive producer of the show from 2015 onward, after being absent from the position for 10 years and 2 months.
- In "Help Wanted," Stephen Hillenburg's name was misspelt as "Stephen Hilleburg," missing the "N" in his surname.
- According to Vincent Waller, he is about 5'8 feet tall.[6]
- According to some commentary left by Stephen on the "Christmas Who?" DVD, he filmed the introductory island at a pool in his friend's house.
- He named Karen Plankton after his wife, Karen Hillenburg.
- He is against revealing the identity of Mrs. Krabs and has kept it a secret throughout the series.
Video
References
- ^ http://www.veromi.net/Summary.asp?fn=Stephen&mn=&ln=Hillenburg&dobmm=08&dobdd=21&doby=1961&city=&state=&age=&vw=&Search=&Input=&x=0&y=0
- ^ http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/spongebob-squarepants-creator-stephen-hillenburg-reveals-als-diagnosis-1202007865/
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hillenburg#cite_note-BillionSue-65 [65]
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hillenburg#cite_note-CCT-66 [66]
- ^ https://twitter.com/VincentWaller72/status/725683970558451712
- ^ https://twitter.com/VincentWaller72/status/876510810129944576
External links
Wikipedia may have more biographical information on this person. Please see Wikipedia's article here. Template:CastCrew
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