Justin Wright (March 8, 1981 – March 18, 2008) was an American artist who worked at

Pixar Animation Studios Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney S ...

for slightly over a year until his death.

Biography

Born with several

congenital heart defect A congenital heart defect (CHD), also known as a congenital heart anomaly, congenital cardiovascular malformation, and congenital heart disease, is a defect in the structure of the heart or great vessels that is present at birth. A congenital h ...

s, Wright received a

heart transplant A heart transplant, or a cardiac transplant, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure when other medical or surgical treatments have failed. , the most common procedure is to take a functioning heart ...

at the age of 12. A year after his transplant, he was a recipient of a wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which was to visit Disney World. At Disney World he was able to take a tour of their animation studios. The tour cemented his love of animation and storytelling. Wright graduated from Sacramento Adventist Academy in 1999, attended

Pacific Union College Pacific Union College (PUC) is a private university, private Seventh-day Adventist Church, Seventh-day Adventist liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Angwin, California. It is the only four-year college in Napa Cou ...

for two years, and also graduated from

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a Private university, private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for ...

Valencia, California Valencia is an unincorporated community in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States. The area, west of Interstate 5, is expanding with residential development and already includes major commercial and industrial parks. It stra ...

. Prior to attending California Institute of the Arts, Wright worked as a Production Assistant at Pixar. He wanted to pursue his education so he chose to leave Pixar hoping one day to return, which he did. His animation credits included the line drawings at the end of the film ''

Ratatouille Ratatouille ( , ; ) is a French Provençal dish of stewed vegetables that originated in Nice and is sometimes referred to as ''ratatouille niçoise'' (). Recipes and cooking times differ widely, but common ingredients include tomato, garlic ...

'' (2007), the storyboards for ''

WALL-E ''WALL-E'' (stylized with an interpunct as ''WALL·E'') is a 2008 American animated Romance film, romantic science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. The film was directed by Andrew Stanton, produced b ...

'' (2008) and the short film ''

Presto Presto may refer to: Computing * Presto (browser engine), an engine previously used in the Opera web browser * Presto (operating system), a Linux-based OS by Xandros * Presto (SQL query engine), a distributed query engine * Presto (animation so ...

'' (2008).

Death

On the evening of Tuesday, March 18, 2008, Wright collapsed at Pixar and he died instantly of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

, ten days after his 27th birthday. ''WALL-E'' is dedicated in “loving memory” of him, as seen in the end credits.

References

External links

*
Justin Wright's blog
1981 births 2008 deaths Pacific Union College alumni American animators American Seventh-day Adventists Heart transplant recipients Pixar people {{US-animator-stub