Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
Dayton-area native, Wright State alumnus and longtime Coen brothers storyboard artist J. Todd Anderson has died.
The Tom Hanks Center for Motion Pictures at Wright State University wrote on social media that the artist passed away with his sister by his side in California.
In addition to his work as a storyboard artist, Anderson also appeared in several films, including as the victim in “Fargo,” directed two feature films, published a book of his storyboards for “The Big Lebowski,” co-hosted the podcast “Filmically Perfect” and wrote both words and music for the pop musical “Nativity.”
Anderson, a New Carlisle native, regularly returned to the Miami Valley and held events, including auctioning off a reproduced storyboard for “The Big Lebowski” to benefit Robert Gray, co-owner of the Ohio Coffee Company, who recently had a kidney transplant. He started a tradition in 2003 of wrapping Oregon District restaurant the Trolley Stop in a banner displaying the names of those who died during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and in 2009 performed in a production of “Nativity the Pop Opera” at Miamisburg Christian Church.
“Rest well, JT,” the film school wrote on social media. “We’ll raise a glass to you tonight.”
