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Steven Ross "Steve" Purcell is an American cartoonist, animator, director, game designer, and voice actor. He is most widely known as the creator of Sam & Max, an independent comic book series about a pair of anthropomorphic animal vigilantes and private investigators, for which Purcell received an Eisner Award in 2007. Since being a comic, the series has grown to incorporate an animated television series and several video games. A graduate of the California College of Arts and Craft, Purcell began his career creating comic strips for the college newsletter. He performed freelance work for Marvel Comics and Fishwrap Productions before publishing his first Sam & Max comic in 1987. Purcell was hired by LucasArts as an artist and animator in 1988, working on several titles within the company's adventure games era.

Purcell collaborated with Nelvana to create a Sam & Max television series in 1997, and briefly worked as an animator for Industrial Light and Magic after leaving LucasArts. He is currently employed in the story development department at Pixar. Much of his work for the animation studio has been with the 2006 film Cars and spin-off materials, such as shorts and video games. His most recent work was as head of story and co-director for Brave. Despite his employment with Pixar, Purcell has continued to work with comic books and came together with Telltale Games in 2005 to bring about new series of Sam & Max video games.

He also performed the voice of the Tractors in Cars, Sandy Dunes in The Radiator Springs 500½, Carl Fredricksen in George and A.J. after Ed Asner declined, The Crow in Brave, the Bensons in Toy Story 4, and Deep Dark Secret in Inside Out 2.

Feature Film Filmography[]

Pixar[]

Year Film Position Subsidiary
2006 Cars Additional Screenplay Material/Voice Actor (Tractors) Pixar
2007 Ratatouille Production Crew
2012 Brave Co-Director/Screenplay/Voice Actor (The Crow)
2019 Toy Story 4 Voice Actor (The Bensons)
2024 Inside Out 2 Voice Actor (Deep Dark Secret)

Animated Shorts Filmography[]

Year Film Position Subsidiary
2006 Mater and the Ghostlight Additional Character Designer/Voice Actor (Screamin' Banshee) Pixar
2008 Cars Toons Additional Voice Talent/Additional Voice/Voice Actor (Sandy Dunes)
2009 George and A.J. Voice Actor (Carl Fredricksen)
2012 The Legend of Mor'du Writer/Voice Actor (Crow)
2014 Toy Story That Time Forgot Writer/Director/Voice Actor (Cleric)

Gameography[]

Year Video game Position Notes
2014 & 2018 (re-releases; originally released in 1993) Sam & Max Hit the Road Designer Originally released by LucasArts; re-released by Disney Interactive on GOG.com and Steam in 2014 and 2018 respectively.

Roles[]

Gallery[]

External links[]


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