NEWS: MONTY OUM, CREATOR OF RWBY, PASSES AWAY AT AGE 33

Production studio Rooster Teeth announced this morning that renowned animator, Monty Oum, has passed away at age 33.

According to the announcement posted by RT’s Matt Hullum on the company’s website, about ten days ago Monty had suffered from a highly allergic reaction during “a simple medical procedure,” which caused him to fall into a coma. Despite the efforts of many people to raise funds for his hospitalization, and fighting as bravely as he did, Monty did not recover and died yesterday afternoon at 4:34pm. The report tells us he was not in any pain.

In memoriam of the beloved RWBY creator, Matt Hullum had this to say:

“ As for honoring Monty, we will do that in our own way. In lieu of flowers or gifts, we ask that you simply do something creative. Use your imagination to make the world a better place in any way that you can. If you know Monty like we do, then you know he would certainly be doing that if he were able to.”

Despite reading the reports over and over, and as I write this article, this is still a hard pill to swallow. Monty’s vision and creativity inspired many people all across the world, and his work was even noticed by those who inspired him. Monty still possessed much unrealized potential, and should have lived a long life of success. But the tremendous impact he had upon all of his fans and the legacy he left behind will never be forgotten, and we will honor him by putting the inspiration he gave us to damn good use.

Monty Oum first found success from his wildly popular Haloid parody film back in 2007, and eventually moved on to work for Midway Games and Namco Games before finally working for Rooster Teeth. There, he provided animation sequences for machinima series Red vs. Blue for three years, until finally starting his own animated series, RWBY. Monty is survived by his wife Sheena, his father Mony, his brothers Woody, Sey, Chivy and Neat, and his sisters Thea and Theary.

Rest in peace, Monty. We miss you, and we’ll never forget you.

-Andrew (Head of A7)

Picture via austinchronicle.com

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