Sean Michael Bellanich was an actor and animation artist who accidentally drowned in a Rancho Mirage hotel swimming pool at age 24. He grew up drawing animation cells and was a fine animation artist in the "old school" tradition.
As a junior at Palm Desert High School, he began a comic strip called "Little Sumo Warriors" with his aunt. At 18 he showed talent as an actor when he played a Jewish Holocaust victim in MTV's "BIOrhythm" series. He also appeared in the film "Yakimoto, Good for You", which debuted at the Palm d'Or Short Film Festival in Palm Desert.
In 2001 he wrote: "I really had what I'd call bad grades, but I'm good in English, History, and Art. I grew up learning to draw animation cells, the traditional form of animation. It's art where I feel I excel, but because everything seems to be heading toward the digital world, I'm having to rethink all the processes that I thought I'd need to be a real 'commodity' in animation. Ten years from now I'll be in a nice Armani suit in a $40 million house doing nothing ... just kidding!"
He was a serious art student at Santa Monica College became an art director at FaceCake Marketing Technologies, where he worked for two years. Sean won the La Quinta Arts Foundation's coveted art scholarship several years in a row. Just before his passing, he was writing an original screenplay.
He was survived by his parents, Alice and Larry Bellanich, brothers
Austin and Beau, and his Aunt Katherine.
As a junior at Palm Desert High School, he began a comic strip called "Little Sumo Warriors" with his aunt. At 18 he showed talent as an actor when he played a Jewish Holocaust victim in MTV's "BIOrhythm" series. He also appeared in the film "Yakimoto, Good for You", which debuted at the Palm d'Or Short Film Festival in Palm Desert.
In 2001 he wrote: "I really had what I'd call bad grades, but I'm good in English, History, and Art. I grew up learning to draw animation cells, the traditional form of animation. It's art where I feel I excel, but because everything seems to be heading toward the digital world, I'm having to rethink all the processes that I thought I'd need to be a real 'commodity' in animation. Ten years from now I'll be in a nice Armani suit in a $40 million house doing nothing ... just kidding!"
He was a serious art student at Santa Monica College became an art director at FaceCake Marketing Technologies, where he worked for two years. Sean won the La Quinta Arts Foundation's coveted art scholarship several years in a row. Just before his passing, he was writing an original screenplay.
He was survived by his parents, Alice and Larry Bellanich, brothers
Austin and Beau, and his Aunt Katherine.
Sean Michael Bellanich was an actor and animation artist who accidentally drowned in a Rancho Mirage hotel swimming pool at age 24. He grew up drawing animation cells and was a fine animation artist in the "old school" tradition.
As a junior at Palm Desert High School, he began a comic strip called "Little Sumo Warriors" with his aunt. At 18 he showed talent as an actor when he played a Jewish Holocaust victim in MTV's "BIOrhythm" series. He also appeared in the film "Yakimoto, Good for You", which debuted at the Palm d'Or Short Film Festival in Palm Desert.
In 2001 he wrote: "I really had what I'd call bad grades, but I'm good in English, History, and Art. I grew up learning to draw animation cells, the traditional form of animation. It's art where I feel I excel, but because everything seems to be heading toward the digital world, I'm having to rethink all the processes that I thought I'd need to be a real 'commodity' in animation. Ten years from now I'll be in a nice Armani suit in a $40 million house doing nothing ... just kidding!"
He was a serious art student at Santa Monica College became an art director at FaceCake Marketing Technologies, where he worked for two years. Sean won the La Quinta Arts Foundation's coveted art scholarship several years in a row. Just before his passing, he was writing an original screenplay.
He was survived by his parents, Alice and Larry Bellanich, brothers
Austin and Beau, and his Aunt Katherine.
As a junior at Palm Desert High School, he began a comic strip called "Little Sumo Warriors" with his aunt. At 18 he showed talent as an actor when he played a Jewish Holocaust victim in MTV's "BIOrhythm" series. He also appeared in the film "Yakimoto, Good for You", which debuted at the Palm d'Or Short Film Festival in Palm Desert.
In 2001 he wrote: "I really had what I'd call bad grades, but I'm good in English, History, and Art. I grew up learning to draw animation cells, the traditional form of animation. It's art where I feel I excel, but because everything seems to be heading toward the digital world, I'm having to rethink all the processes that I thought I'd need to be a real 'commodity' in animation. Ten years from now I'll be in a nice Armani suit in a $40 million house doing nothing ... just kidding!"
He was a serious art student at Santa Monica College became an art director at FaceCake Marketing Technologies, where he worked for two years. Sean won the La Quinta Arts Foundation's coveted art scholarship several years in a row. Just before his passing, he was writing an original screenplay.
He was survived by his parents, Alice and Larry Bellanich, brothers
Austin and Beau, and his Aunt Katherine.
